Detention Detail PV Beyond the Treeline

@Lauren Vanes

Banner by Madeline Tomlinson

DISCLAIMER - Similar to Lauren's post above, abuse may be mentioned in this post. If you are sensitive to said topic, please do not read. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to send me an owl!

As Rosie continued walking, she thought again of how horrible of an idea this entire thing was. Not only being in detention, but following her friend into the Forbidden Forest, and potentially into some really huge danger. She was not a fan of breaking the rules, and there were very, very few reasons that she ever would.

One of those very few reasons was to help a friend, and to her, this counted. But that didn't mean that she was enjoying this!

As she listened to Lauren, she felt as her fear only increased, rather than getting smaller. She could tell that Lauren wanted to feel superior or in the right, even though Rosie knew for a fact that none of this was truly helping all of what was going on. The poor girl needed some therapy or an intervention, not just to put herself in danger to feel more brave.

Then, her friend claimed that she was on a 'rebellious streak', and wanted to make them regret everything they'd done. Which was a plan that Rosalyn most definitely did support. Based on what she'd heard, they deserved all of the pain in the world, and most definitely did not deserve poor Lauren. But, even though Lauren said that she didn't care as long as her grades or social status remained intact, Rosie knew that wasn't true. At least, not deep down in the girl's heart. Or, at least, she definitely hoped that she hadn't closed herself off to caring about what others thought. That was something that dictated nearly all of Rosie's thoughts, and she really didn't know how Lauren was so confident in not caring.

"Lauren. I know that you say you don't care about what your family thinks, but I'm pretty sure that isn't true." she said, very confident in the fact. Or, at least, she still hoped that she was right.

"Even though you've been treated so horribly, that doesn't mean that you should throw your life away. You deserve a future beyond them, and even though you don't think so, you are letting them decide what you do." she said, hoping that Lauren would just stop and listen, if only for a second or two.

Rosie felt as the logic began to form in her head, and only hoped that she was able to convey her thoughts before they flew out of her head, as they often did.

"By going into here, you are potentially getting rid of your chance to live in general, or to have the life you deserve. If you get expelled for going into the Forbidden Forest, you don't get the training you need to become the powerful witch that you've wanted to be." she added, imagining that. Hogwarts without her, it just wouldn't be the same.

It was taking all of her willpower, every bit of energy, and all of the bubbliness left in her that was being drained away by each step she kept taking into these godforsaken woods, not to say what she was truly thinking of the matter, what was really going through her head. But, that didn't mean that in her head the opinions didn't show through.

WHY IN THE WORLD IS SHE WILLING TO RISK ME AND MY LIFE AND MY FUTURE FOR HER PETTY REBELLION?!? DOES SHE HATE ME? DOES SHE WANT ME TO DIE ALONG WITH HER IN THIS STUPID FREAKING FOREST? DOES SHE NOT CARE ABOUT ME AT ALL???

Does she not care about me at all…

That thought began looping in her thoughts, playing on repeat until it was all that she could hear. Nothing else but the terrible thought of being hated and ignored by someone that she cared so, so much about. Does she not care about me, does she not care if I die, does she want me dead, is she willing to get me killed, is she planning on killing me?

Now that thought was even worse. Was this all some elaborate plan made by Lauren to get her killed? But why…they'd known each other since the second day of school, what could she possibly have done to destroy that sort of a friendship? Was she too happy? Too bubbly? Too annoying? Oh, who knows, but was Lauren going to end her life? The darkness she'd shown earlier, the reason that she'd gotten into detention, was that going to emerge as a murderous sort of rage?

Okay, now I'm scared she thought, feeling as her heart began to race and her palms got sweatier. She needed to get back to the relative safety of the main detention group, which meant that she needed to find a way to get back without Lauren having the chance to kill her.

But, what if she was just overthinking things? Honestly, jumping to the conclusion that her friend was planning on killing her seemed a bit too dramatic. Rosie needed to stop the anxious spiral and take a nice, long, deep breath.

So, she did just that, trying to calm a bit down. Then, she prepared herself to just ask Lauren flat out if she was planning on killing her. That way at least there would be no need to question what exactly was going on.

"Lauren, are you going to kill me? If so, then I'm going to head back. If not, then we both should head back before things get even more dangerous. But if you are planning on killing me, then why in the world do you want to do that?" she asked, just lumping all of the questions all together so that she didn't have to get herself even more scared to ask.

She stopped in her tracks while she waited for the answer, feeling her pulse speed up yet again as the silence frightened her further. All she wanted was an answer, a reply, just to know exactly what was going on so she could figure out if she should run screaming back to the others, or take Lauren with her.

AMAZING BANNER BY MADELINE TOMLINSON

_____________❖_____________

Word Count: 1525/200

Interacting with: Rosalyn Willows

Lauren: #2e5a25 Others: #84774d Thoughts: italics

Date: XXth June 2026

@Remy Break, @Logan Baird, @Remy Break & @Denise Yarbrough

Denise initially assumed Remy Break was some oversized seventh-year with an undersized sense of self-preservation. Then she realized the horrifying truth: he was probably a first year with the same terrible survival instinct. Somehow that made everything worse. Being rude to Headmaster Solomon Lear was already a questionable survival strategy, but doing it while dangling upside down elevated it into an art form. Denise briefly considered helping, only to remember that the appropriate counterspell was well beyond her year level. Besides, if she attempted it and accidentally launched Remy into low orbit, that would probably generate paperwork and the headmaster poised with a fruity drink and a pair of sunglasses, seemed ill equipped for paperwork. Fortunately, Remy seemed perfectly capable of generating trouble without assistance.

The headmaster regarded the upside-down boy with the patient expression of a man who had lived through wars, political scandals, resurrection attempts, and several decades of adolescent stupidity. It was generally the same, regardless of the generation. Some fresh slang. But same entitlement, same defiance, same narcissistic ego that baffles a logical mind.

So Remy's protests barely registered. The barked insults, the threats, the claim of illegality. Not that a specific law exists that prohibits flipping a defiant child upside down, although some legal scholar would probably come up with something. It did not matter to the former magizoologist, it was all background noise.

In fact, Solomon seemed far more interested in the objects currently raining from the boy's pockets: a stolen wand, teeth and a padlock. The headmaster's gaze lingered on the collection for a long moment. "...Interesting, who is their proper owner." He commented, failing to notice the shifting beneath his reclined seat.

"Well, one of us appears to have arrived prepared for detention," Solomon commented. Solomon lowered his sunglasses just enough to peer over them. "You know, Remy, when most students claim they are innocent victims of circumstance, they generally attempt to do so before their pockets begin confessing on their behalf." Where the hell did he find teeth?

"Accio" what to call this? With a moments hesitation he added, "stolen... paraphernalia,". Spells require intent in addendum to actual raw power, and while there were multiple wands, multiple sets of teeth (most attached to their owners ideally), and probably a limited number of padlocks, it was the intention and the awareness of the target that drew the intended target in.

The headmaster studied the teeth with particular concern. "...I am not going to ask." A lie. He was absolutely going to ask later. But for now, he was keeping them.

Remy continued swinging furiously overhead while demanding justice, freedom, and apparently Logan's assistance. Solomon looked toward Logan. Then back toward the suspended menace. Then back toward Logan again.

"Miss Baird," the headmaster's voice was calm. "Should you choose to assist Remy," he got no Mr., "I would like to formally remind you that helping him escape consequences would make you an accomplice." He let his sunglasses slide back over his pale eyes. "Helping him remain upside down, however, would be considered community service." It was likely the sum of those here would appreciate her efforts.

But then of course, the manual labor part of the detention would not be satisfied. Solomon ignored Remy's increasingly colorful outrage and took a sip from his pineapple drink. "Now then." Solomon started to release the spell that held the almost teen upside down, lowering Remy until almost the ground. His hands could meet the grass at the very least.

The headmaster pointed toward a particularly overgrown section of the treeline where brush concealed several of the old ward stones. "You may begin clearing debris as soon as you discover a method of locomotion appropriate to your current circumstances." Perhaps their partner Logan could push them around, or her would amble on his hands. Then, almost as an afterthought, "and if another student's teeth fall out of your pockets during the process, kindly place them in the lost-and-found."

Unfortunately for Remy, Logan was not willing to tolerate his shenanigans. The boy was rude when she offered to work with him, he then caught the eye of the insular headmaster who even the upper classman had seen only a handful of times. What sane student would want to be associated with the inverted rage-machine that was Remy? Not Logan, that was for sure. She would find an interesting place to start and begin clearing the area on her own. She had forgotten her gloves and she never took a pair of gloves or shears offered by the headmaster.

A mistake she would suffer for.

Meanwhile, Harvey had just reminded Denise of the terms of their arrangement. A position in financial law was undoubtedly in Harvey's future. Harvey had made his point, but he did use big words like explain, he probably left the poor girl dumbfounded. Not that Denise's vocabulary was Harvey's problem. Harvey was a lender, not an educator. Walking off from an unnecessary confrontation, he would come face to, well actually face for once. An upside-down part-giant who was having an even worse day than most of the other detention-goers.

Logan was trying to do the right thing, even if she did not accept every protective measure. She should have. Trying to remain under the radar, avoiding acceptance and equipment in the process of such, can be dangerous. Denise had decided to join Logan. Logan started to work, lifting branches, peeling away tangled underbrush, pulling weeds, and Logan would learn why gloves were being offered.

Logan at risk for Infestation
Roll: 25% chance 56
Denise at risk for Infestation
Roll: 25% chance (advantage due to gloves) 53, 36

Both Logan and Denise would back up just in time. A swarm of tiny insects, like ants with anger-management issues came from a small mound in the ground that was disturbed by the girls' diligent efforts. They moved away just in time, avoiding the angry swarm.

Remy has some additional follow-up later in this post. The spell holding him upside down breaks at the end of this round.

@Archer Duncan, @Prat Pass, @Silas Norwood & @Julia Evans

Archer would quickly discover why "controlled fire" was typically a phrase uttered moments before a situation ceased being controlled. The boy drew his wand, there was no technical rule against using magic to assist them in managing the weeds and the brush, just the expectation that each student had two braincells to rub together to keep the other warm. Apparently his was feeling chilly for Incendio Tria was incanted by the teen. Better known as the fire-starting spell, cast to the third power. In other words, an empowered fire starting spell because a basic, small, controlled fire in the dry brush just would not do.

Archer cast Incendio Tria.
Roll: 8

The first tongue of flame caught the dry brush exactly as intended. But, there was no firebreak in the brush, no stone frame. Just more dried leaves and aged timber. So, the second tongue caught a tangle of dead weeds hidden beneath it. And the third found a bed of leaves that had been drying in the sun for months.

Does Archer get set on fire?
Roll: (9 Evasion) 52% chance 13
Evasive Maneuver: 10% chance to auto-dodge
Does fellow-group member Prat Pass get set on fire?
Roll: (8 Evasion) 54% chance 42

Damage: (9 AC) 180/round

What had begun as a neat little blaze became a crawling orange line racing through the undergrowth. Smoke rose in a dark column above the clearing. Several birds exploded from the treeline in alarm.

Unfortunately for Archer, the area they had been ordered to clear was not merely overgrown, it was neglected. Fallen branches, dead brush, old roots, and years of accumulated debris lay hidden beneath the greenery like kindling waiting for an excuse. And the fire happily accepted the invitation.

Silas was not far, as was Julia Evans. If only Archer had not approached to inquire about how Silas had gotten detention before recklessly setting the dry woods ablaze, they would have avoided getting caught up in the disaster that would follow.

Silas had decided to help, whatever vacant logic compelled him, he joined casting Incendio in the same, general area. The dried leaves and brush caught fire quickly, and like Archer, the fire was not willing to be contained.

And Archer's brushfire spread faster.

Does Silas get set on fire by Archer's fire?
Roll: (7 Evasion) 56% chance 64
Evasive Maneuver: 10% chance to auto-dodge
Does Julia get set on fire by Archer's fire?
Roll: (5 Evasion) 60% chance 59

Damage: (9 AC) 180/round

Silas managed to hurl himself away from the advancing flames in a frantic, undignified dance that suggested he had suddenly rediscovered a deep appreciation for not being on fire. Julia, unfortunately, had followed him out of equal parts curiosity and poor timing. Instead of an eventful detention, she received an eventful combustion. Her trouser leg ignited with alarming enthusiasm. Thanks a lot, Silas. The wizarding world, for all its marvels, remained surprisingly underinvested in flame-retardant school uniforms.

As if proving that one bad idea deserved another, Silas' own spell only fed the growing blaze.

Does Silas get set on fire by Silas' fire?
Roll: (7 Evasion) 56% chance 5 fire
Evasive Maneuver: 10% chance to auto-dodge 49 failed
Does Julia get set on fire by Silas' fire?
Roll: (5 Evasion) 60% chance 76 fire
Does Archer get set on fire by Silas'?
Roll: (9 Evasion) 52% chance 39 fire
Evasive Maneuver: 10% chance to auto-dodge 47 failed
Does fellow-group member Prat Pass get set on fire by Silas' fire?
Roll: (8 Evasion) 54% chance 20 fire

By the time the sparks settled, Julia and Prat had acquired involuntary flaming hairstyles, while Archer and Silas discovered that sleeves make surprisingly effective kindling. The brushfire was now spreading nicely, if one measured success exclusively in terms of insurance claims.

The headmaster was not entirely oblivious, but he was enjoying the buzz from his 'probably non-alcoholic' pineapple drink, so it took him a minute longer than he would have desired. It was the scent of burnt wood that pulled his attention from the shouting youth (Remy). "By Merlin's increasingly frayed patience..." Solomon muttered. Headmaster Lear no longer infuriatingly relaxed in his chair, he sat upright as the world around him descended into spectacular incompetence. Then the ground beneath his boots sighed.

@Angel Dayes, @Cecilia Merrick, & @Charlotte Winfield

Cecilia briefly enjoyed the illusion of a normal conversation. Gardening, cooking, pleasant memories. Perfectly respectable topics. Then Angel started talking about rules again and the illusion shattered immediately. Cecilia informed her, with the weary patience of someone explaining gravity to a particularly optimistic child, that sneaking into Hogsmeade was never about the destination. It was about the thrill. More concerning was the revelation that Angel genuinely hadn't known first-years were barred from visiting in the first place. That explained a great deal. Cecilia gently suggested that blindly following authority figures was generally a poor life strategy, though coming from Cecilia Merrick the advice carried all the irony of a dragon lecturing someone about fire safety. Speaking of fire safety, there was a fire...

Meanwhile, Lottie's solution to every problem appeared to involve additional Quidditch practice. Broken morale? Practice. Crushing defeats? Practice. Existential despair? Probably practice before breakfast. Cecilia pointed out that exhausted players who believed they were doomed tended to remain doomed, regardless of how many laps they ran. Still, when she learned Charlotte was largely alone, her irritation softened enough to offer a small reassurance. Detention was miserable, but misery did tend to assemble people into oddly functional groups.

Charlotte Winfield got to work, casting the levitating charm and stacking stones. It was one of those activities nobody looked forward to, but the sooner it was attended to, the sooner it could be over.

Charlotte cast the Levitating Charm
Roll: (Wisdom 6) 9

It went on without incident, Charlotte failed to rile any snakes, disturb any insects, set anything on fire...

Meanwhile, Angel had an acute sense of smell. She had smelled blood in the area surrounding them. It was not concentrated in one area, but rather all about her. It was not the sort of smell that would make her salivate, it was old blood. It had congealed, coagulated, and putrefied, and this was a distinct odor that was more stomach churning.

A reasonable person might have communicated this as a concerning finding. "Hey ladies, I smell blood?" But no, the outside-acknowledging girl that the narrator has chosen to pick on, decided to keep this tidbit of information to herself. Instead, she cast the levitating charm on some branches.

Angel cast the Levitating Charm on branches.
Roll: (Wisdom 7) 9 Successful, but not well-done

The branches hovered slightly, work almost got done. Detention was not a time for working or pondering; it was a time to socialize. She would talk to her partners before overhearing on another part of the grounds someone cast Incendio Tria. Where most would rebuke, remove (the fire) or run, but Angel decided to strike up a conversation with the boy whose pants were on fire, like the liar he was. "Are you planning to burn the place?"

Does Angel get set on fire?
Roll: (6 Evasion) 58% chance 33

Damage: (9 AC) 180/round

Flames spread across a patch of weeds and surged toward the treeline. Toward the wardline that was already severely damaged, half-buried beneath vegetation. But first, they clung to the girl, as she like Prat and Archer was set afire.

Between the suspicious mushrooms, hidden graves, mysterious bottles, spreading fires, and increasingly questionable decisions being made around the treeline, there was a growing sense that detention had evolved well beyond its original educational purpose. But the girl amidst all of this would not remain in one place, she would get bored (somehow) and be drawn to Sebastien [refer to later reference].

@Colin McCoire & @Ebony Vetra

Colin's curiosity promptly overpowered his attention span. While chatting with Ebony and turning debris-clearing into an elaborate pirate campaign against the Liche King, he gradually pieced together something far more interesting than Headmaster Lear's assigned chores. Charred Hufflepuff cloth, an abandoned spoon, a damp book hidden beneath a burnt blanket, old blood, and the unmistakable scent of Darkest Night all converged into a single conclusion: something significant had happened here long before today's spectacularly mismanaged detention. Realizing he might actually be onto something, Colin abandoned any pretense of gardening and set out to locate the source.

To his credit, the werewolf succeeded, at least partially. Following the lingering trail, Colin identified not one but two distinct sources of the Darkest Night residue. Both led to concealed black stone cairns hidden beneath the overgrowth: one already being investigated by a pair of students, Leo and Erast the other with a stronger scent was being uncovered by Richard and Skylar. By Merlin's increasingly frayed patience, amidst the fires, giant spiders, buried skulls, screaming mushrooms, and students wandering into the Forbidden Forest for fun, Colin had somehow stumbled onto an actual clue. Whether anyone would have time to appreciate it before the next catastrophe was another matter entirely.

Of course Colin would need to make a decision soon - is this a clue meant to be followed or a reward for having a keen sense of smell.

@Zach Zaphiere, @Rosaline Everhart, @Damien Dragonclaw & @Mamori Anezaki

Introductions were exchanged, responsibility was assigned, and by general consensus blame was leveled and it was all Mamori's fault. Damien, newly inducted into the exclusive fraternity of students who had made questionable life choices, at least got something out of the experience. While surveying the treeline at the behest of Mamori's fraud, he had spotted a man standing among the brush: he could be described as a tall, thin man with a broad-brimmed hat, long dark coat, older perhaps, and very much not a student or member of staff that he recognized. What he had seen wasn't enough to identify him, but it was enough to inspire the sort of questions that inevitably preceded terrible decisions. What was he doing there? Had Damien stumbled onto a mystery? Or had he simply found yet another reason this detention was spiraling out of control?

Zach, meanwhile, discovered that the provided dragonhide gloves actually fit, they a;ways did. The gloves were enchanted to fit. They just were not new, nor were they what one would consider 'fashionable.' More surprisingly, Zach had somehow accumulated a small social circle despite being far more scholar than charmer. With the exception of Mamori, most of his companions were amateurs at this whole "rebellion" business. Probably for the best. Bad influences had a habit of multiplying.

Unfortunately, Mamori was a professional bad influence. The fear of disciplinary records, stern lectures, and disappointed adults had long since bounced harmlessly off him. Hogwarts did, in fact, keep records, and parents could absolutely be informed, assuming they cared enough to ask or read the generic-looking owl sent their way. The castle operated on an informal "concerned guardian" policy: inquisitive parents received the truth, disengaged ones remained blissfully ignorant but had access to the information if they cared to find out. As for Mamori's family? Well, the boy had bright pink hair and had just entertained the idea of skipping detention. It was difficult to imagine his problematic nature came as a surprise to them, if they cared to notice him at all and this was not all a cry for help.

@Richard de Montmorency & @Skylar Astor

Richard was one of the more compliant students. While a lot of the other students reflected on how they were 'framed' or how this detention was an 'injustice' - what sort of 'monster' would make them labor until sunset. Richard was one of the few that was actually making an effort to clear the brush.

A cairn of black stone was uncovered. It was nothing fancy, simply a stack of semi-flat stones stacked one on top of the other, partially hidden by the tall grass, the tangle of brambles and the the displaced brush. This was not a natural structure, even if whatever this was, it would likely not stand out unless someone knew what to look for. Sort of like placing a log upright to serve as a marker.

Skylar was directed towards the strange glint noted between the blackened stones. Jewelry perhaps? Maybe a galleon coin? Something shiny to make the drudgery of today worthwhile. She would remove the stones, they were piled one on top of the other, creating a small tower-like structure that did not exceed the height of the long grass.

Once several stones were removed, Skylar would come upon what appeared to be a small cache of bottles filled with a dark, smoky liquid.



The bottles were stoppered and unlabeled, filled with a dark, mist-like fluid.

@Livia Machavariani & @Camille De Varenne

When had Livia become a married woman on the verge of divorce? Nobody could say. Perhaps it happened sometime during the walk from the castle. Perhaps it had always been this way. Whatever the cause, she now found herself trapped in detention beside Camille, carrying herself with the exhausted indignation of a wife whose husband had spent twenty years promising to fix the roof and somehow never gotten around to it.

Remarkably, neither of them were actually married. Which was good, because they were already well on their way to their first divorce.

While she seemed less than thrilled by the arrangement, Livia never abandoned her assigned partner. Instead, she dedicated herself to the much nobler pursuit of criticizing his work ethic while contributing absolutely nothing to the task herself. Unfortunately, informing Camille that work existed did not appear to constitute work itself. As a result, the total amount of vegetation removed by the partnership remained approximately zero.

Livia was far too busy talking at him rather than to him, and staring into the forest.

Livia Observes the Forest:
Roll: (Wisdom 2

The Forbidden Forest possessed a reputation bordering on mythological. Students spoke of hidden monsters, ancient magic, forgotten ruins, cursed spirits, and all manner of horrors lurking beneath the canopy. Livia saw none of that. What she observed instead was a collection of trees, a fire being set by an obviously mentally ill student, and... that was about it. As such, the ancient woodland failed to leave an impression, much like Camille (sorry!).

Meanwhile, Camille approached detention the way one might approach a tax audit: by pretending it wasn't happening and hoping it eventually became someone else's problem. While Livia accused him of being the sort of person who contributed nothing to group projects, Camille seemed to take this less as an insult and more as a lifestyle suggestion. Rather than work, he occupied himself by judging other students from a safe distance, eventually locking eyes with Cecilia Merrick across the clearing. What began as casual disapproval escalated into a silent battle of mutual contempt, culminating in Camille blowing her an invisible kiss solely because it was likely to annoy her. This was, admittedly, the most productive thing he accomplished all morning.

He should be careful, with the desperation of some of the lasses in this school, that could be taken as an invitation.

Unfortunately, Livia continued existing nearby and insisting upon interaction. Faced with the horrifying prospect of actually participating in detention, Camille finally drew his wand. After questioning why anyone would willingly perform labor they could avoid, and briefly contemplating whether Solomon Lear's armored beachwear qualified as a cry for help (it didn't, it is called COMFORT), he reluctantly cast Reparo on a broken branch. Whether it was a ward marker, a piece of debris, or something historically significant was unclear. The important thing was that Camille had finally done approximately three seconds of work and was already carrying himself like a man who deserved a medal for it.

Camille cast reparo
Roll: (wisdom 11

Wow, Camille fixed a branch. Not a ward stone. Not one of the damaged cairns. Not the suspicious bottles. Not the mushrooms growing from human remains. Not the forest fire. Not the giant spiders. A branch. To be fair, it was an exceptionally broken branch beforehand. The snapped wood knitted itself back together under the effects of the spell, fibers reconnecting and bark sealing over the fracture line. The result was a perfectly functional stick, restored to all the glory nature had originally intended. It remained a stick.

@Remy Break, @Mikey Forville & @Avery Gray

Mikey had a bad feeling, one of those feelings that was intended to warn 'lesser' creatures that there was something dangerous nearby. Just, feelings often lacked context. The boy knew something was off, but he had no idea what was wrong. Only, he and nearly 80 other students, were in a mass detention, that seemed to carry the weight of a mass grave.

He went to work, clearing away the weeds that tried to reclaim the boundary markers. The marked stones that indicated the edge of civilization and the beginning of wilderness. Avery started pulling weeds and clearing felled foliage.

The headmaster started to stand, he started to call some of the younger students out of the chaos with a "Hey!" But nothing more was said. The earth under the headmaster's feet softened like wet clay, black roots threading silently through the soil before coiling around the legs of his chair. They did not lunge or whip; they simply pulled with patient certainty, as though reclaiming something long overdue. The chair sank an inch, then another. Grass folded inward. Dirt flowed like liquid around polished wood. In the span of a heartbeat, the Headmaster who stood before his seat was swallowed whole, descending into the earth without so much as a splash of mud.

When the movement ceased, the place where Solomon had moments earlier sat, was now still. Remy would crash face-first into the dirt, the spell broken.

@Paul Turner, @Avery Abernathy, @Tatiana Contraire & @Ophelia Vanderbilt

Tatiana's attention drifted from branches to genealogy with remarkable efficiency, correctly concluding that anyone referencing Dumbledore in a positive light was probably not the purest of purebloods. More pressing, however, were the mushrooms. White caps, red spots, the smell of something that had died, regretted it, and then died again. The sort of fungus that practically screamed poor life choices at anyone with functioning instincts. While she attempted to remove them without actually touching them, a strategy that suggested she possessed at least some survival skills, Paul Turner arrived with the far more effective distraction of having dug up something interesting.

Yes, Paul was living his best detention life, actually impressed that one of the girls had a spare pair of dragonhide gloves. The very gloves the headmaster was handing out. Paul was, for a lack of a better word, a very normal boy. He liked bugs, unlike the girls he was paired up with. He was dealing with the outdoors with the casual nonchalance of someone that had touched grass regularly prior to Hogwarts. This is something that is relatively uncommon.

All his bug talk was really going to help him get the ladies. He made Avery internally cringe. The term is entomophobia, an intense, irrational fear or disgust of insects.

Paul was getting to work, engaging in chatter while he toiled. A levitation charm in place of brawn, a broken stone would be discovered beneath the displaced brush. The ward was badly damaged, in several pieces. As if something had smashed the stone with a powerful, concussive force. Blackened also from fire, not today's fire as that was still spreading, but a past fire.

Odd...

"Scourgify!"

Paul casts Scourgify.
Roll: (Wisdom 7) 8

Suds covered the ward, as an unseen force scrubbed away the grime. Black rivulets ran down the face of the stone, revealing a symbol embossed on the face of the broken stone.

Most of the surface was obscured by dirt packed into the grooves. Now clean, a symbol emerged. A daisy wheel, or something very close to one: interlocking circles had been carefully inscribed into the stone, creating a complex geometric pattern that drew the eye inward. Six petals radiated from a central point, each line crossing another with deliberate precision. The design looked deceptively simple until one tried to follow it, at which point the geometry became almost hypnotic.

The revealed symbol:

Wisdom DC 30 to know what this symbol is automatically - Paul does not meet the DC even with a critical success.

Paul had no idea what he was looking at, but he knew it was important. Rather than keep this to himself, attempt to further deface the already damaged rune, or do something equally stupid, he ran off and attempted to procure the wisdom of someone that might have some of the answers.

Avery had paid attention in Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was aware that there were numerous protective wards found around the school that performed a variety of duties such as deterring muggles, preventing apparition on the grounds, unplottable enchantments to prevent the school from being mapped or those on the ground effectively scried, anti-intruder jinxes, entrance bewitchments and even various flight and creature protections. There was no single rune that did it all, but rather several runes working in harmony to achieve the security Hogwarts enjoys.

What did that rune do?

Paul went to Tatiana, who was now faced with the choice between investigating suspicious death-mushrooms or investigating whatever alarming object another Hogwarts student had unearthed, the Hufflepuff made the only sensible decision available: abandon her current mystery in favor of a potentially larger one. This was, after all, the same decision-making process responsible for roughly half the detentions present.

She recognized the basics. It was a ward, something that protected the school. The fact that it was now broken was a bad thing. It meant that there was a break in the school's security. That there was a vulnerability, although she had no way of knowing how bad this really was. The headmaster was gone, not even a scream, the earth had simply swallowed him. Who else was there to ask?

@Dido Bleaklane & @Tina Carille

Dido is a liar. Who would have thought the insecure little girl also had an allergy to honest communication. Indeed, she did nothing wrong. It wasn't stupid. She was not even mad! She was just upset, worried, hurt, abandoned...

There was the face she shared with the rest of the world and the inner face that only she knew. Tina was distressed over... something, not that Dido could fathom what could possibly be wrong - Tina's life was perfect. Apparently that was the problem. If there was no native issue, then be upset you were not worthy. Indeed invent the drama, it was the teenage Hogwarts way.

@Aislin Darragh & @Fawkes Chaos

What did you do?

It was a good thing Aislin had specified which hand scratched her nose. The distinction may very well have saved the thing (it totally did). In hindsight, "dueling on the grounds" was hardly the most scandalous offense represented among today's gathering of delinquents. It could have been worse. More embarrassing. More mundane. Something truly shameful, like being caught sneaking out after curfew for no reason whatsoever. At least have a boyfriend or a secret club to rendezvous with.

Fawkes was working the smaller branches, the ones not too large or awkward to carry.

Aislin had at least demonstrated one valuable trait: she thought. That alone elevated her above a concerning percentage of the detention population. And so she was among the first to remember a very important detail: Spiders lived in the forest. Not metaphorical spiders, not tiny spiders. The sort of spiders that had caused generations of Hogwarts students to develop lifelong prejudices against forests, shadows, and things with more than four legs.

The very same forest Fawkes and Aislin were currently working beside. The very same forest that was rapidly filling with smoke. The very same forest that Archer had just set on fire. Aislin saw the boy draw his wand and cast the spell and she should have done something. She had known it was a bad idea, she had even said as much. Yet knowledge and action were not always the same thing. She had watched the reckless display unfold from a safe enough distance that the flames did not immediately threaten her.

Others had not been so fortunate. The fire spread greedily through the brush. Smoke rolled across the clearing. The ancient wardline crackled and spat sparks as heat washed over stones that had already suffered one fire too many.

The logical response would have been simple: drop the bundle of sticks and RUN. She might even have done exactly that had something not moved beyond the treeline. At first it appeared to be a shadow. Then a darker shadow behind it. Then the trees themselves seemed to shift. Branches swayed and trunks groaned; something large was moving through the forest.

The largest was nearly the size of a truck, its massive silhouette weaving between the trees as effortlessly as a person might walk through tall grass. Two smaller shapes followed behind it, each roughly the size of an icebox, though "smaller" was a dangerously generous description. The smoke had driven them from deeper within the forest by instinct, perhaps also due to the wards that remained intact that now cracked under the crematorium-like heat.

As the flames spread, the creatures avoided the fire with startling intelligence, circling around the burning brush rather than through it. Long legs carried them over roots and fallen logs with horrifying speed. Faster than Aislin could ever hope to run.

A branch snapped, then another. A tree bent alarmingly to one side. The undergrowth erupted outward and the first Acromantula burst from the treeline.



One of the *cough* petite spiders, attempted to trample Aislin.

Icebox-sized acromantula attempts to trample Aislin
Roll: Evasion 6 (DC 20) 1 critical failure

Damage: 200

Crunch went Aislin's ribs, as one of the spider's 8 legs crashed down on the girl's midsection. Ribs should not bow inward, hers now did.

@Pyxis Hellebore, @Kaito Foxglove, @Costanza Jewelweed & @Jessamine Hemlock

Kaito's reaction probably should have raised more questions than it did. Most students did not abruptly grab their friend's wrist because of a mushroom. Then again, most students also didn't attend suspicious after-hours séances near the wardline and receive ominous messages from potentially supernatural sources. The warning: RUN. DO NOT DIG. had lodged itself somewhere deep in his brain, dormant until Pyxis began enthusiastically excavating exactly the sort of thing mysterious eldritch messages generally advised against. Naturally, being a teenager, Kaito immediately attempted to walk back the outburst and pretend he wasn't one bad decision away from becoming the protagonist of a cautionary tale. Meanwhile, Jessamine was busy discovering that the grass contained unpleasant surprises, Costanza had recovered from whatever dramatic episode briefly possessed her, and Pyxis remained committed to the timeless Hogwarts tradition of uncovering things that should probably remain buried.

Pyxis had found Myconids. The mushrooms were partially concealed beneath the brush and tall grass, their pale caps peeking through the undergrowth like infected wounds on the forest floor. Pyxis recognized them immediately.

Unfortunately, most students would have preferred ignorance. Pyxis remembered them all too well. The previous infestation had spread throughout the grounds with alarming enthusiasm. They had appeared everywhere: flowerbeds, courtyards, greenhouses, pathways. Anywhere they could gain purchase. They stank of rot and spoiled meat and possessed an uncanny ability to multiply faster than anyone seemed capable of removing them.

For a time, they had been everywhere. Then they weren't. The infestation had been eradicated and it entered the school with a whisper and left the same way. There was never any sort of answer regarding what they were or why they had grown in the first place. But they were gone now, or so everyone had believed.

But the small cluster before the boy suggested something troubling. This wasn't an infestation, yet. It was an origin point. Why were they back? Seasonal growth seemed plausible. Warm weather encouraged all manner of unpleasant things. Yet his first encounter with the creatures had occurred during autumn, when leaves had only just begun turning. The pattern didn't fit. Something else was happening. Something had survived or arrived.

Driving the blades of his shears into the soil around the largest specimen, Pyxis began loosening the earth around its base. The tool was poorly suited for excavation, but at least he wasn't setting the forest on fire like certain students elsewhere in the clearing.

The mushroom resisted. That was expected. These things always did. The roots tended to run deeper than seemed reasonable, twisting through the earth with stubborn determination. He remembered how difficult they had been to remove before.

So the teen worked carefully. Digging. Loosening. Preparing. Then he tightened his gloves, wrapped both hands around the thick white stalk, and pulled.

Strength Check
Roll: (Strength 3) 9

The mushroom tore free from the earth with a wet, sucking sound. Followed by a scream - shrill and pained. Roots followed, taking with them chunks of dark earth. Long and twisted. Thick as ropes in places and tangled among those roots was something pale. For one brief moment, Pyxis might have hoped for an animal as sick as that might have been: a fox, a rabbit. Perhaps some unfortunate woodland creature strangled by the invasive growth, he has seen it before. It was logical.

Instead, the roots dragged a human skull into the daylight.

It emerged slowly from the dirt, clotted with mud and wrapped in fungal tendrils. White roots threaded through empty eye sockets. Others pushed between cracked teeth and emerged from the base of the jaw like grotesque veins.

The skull itself was clean, but the dirt was soft. Like it was recently buried. Perhaps recently dead. And the myconid roots had grown through it as though feeding from whatever remained. A scream could be heard, not from a student (for once), but the mushroom - shrill but brief. The sort of sound that would bring one to recall ear coverings and yearn for them.

Costanza has awoken from her vision moments too late. "Pyxis. Stop. Stop touching that. What the hell is it? ...The headmaster didn't mention clearing any hellspawn mushrooms away." She moved next to him. "Leave it alone. Please." Words of wisdom echoed by Kaito "Don't" moments too late.

Too much was happening at once. Jessamine was being ignored by the trio and something was wrong. A tickle turned to sting, something was on her. She tried to look under her clothes, see if in the darkness she could discern what was there. She could not see much, but she could feel it. Like fire, then some movement, not her flesh.

Jessamine observes - looks to see what is biting her
Roll: (Wisdom 10) 15

As light touched them, whatever they were, she would note a swarm of strange, yellow insects that did not look unlike ticks. Biting, not burrowing, yet at least. There was a legion of them. "What? Did something bite you?"

Yes, something absolutely bit her. Or rather somethings, the plural, and actively biting her. He decided to take a look, not at her nearly displaced pants (thank Merlin), but at the treacherous grass. At least he had the sense to wear gloves when he sought proximity to whatever it was that was compelling the poor girl to nearly disrobe.

Advantage to avoid Infestation due to gloves.
25% chance for infestation. 78, 98

Costanza caught a flicker of impossible blue at the edge of her vision. Linda's Bluebell Flames danced harmlessly nearby, achieving precisely nothing useful in the ongoing crisis, unless one counted making the scenery more dramatic. Yet the forest responded as though it recognized the fire. The blue light reflected off weathered stones and blackened bark with eerie familiarity, as if this corner of Hogwarts had seen such flames before and had been waiting, patiently, for them to return.

Then the world blinked.

Not forward, but backward.

The smoke became mist. The cries of students vanished, replaced by oppressive silence. Hanging from the branches were glass lanterns, each cradling the same unnatural blue flames, marking a winding path through the woods. Shadowed figures moved among them, removing the lanterns one by one until darkness reclaimed the trail. A child's hand scratched waxy runes across an ancient wardstone with innocent determination. A mask settled over a frightened boy's face, only for terror to melt into a serene, unsettling smile. Somewhere beyond the trees stood another figure, unseen but unmistakably in control, a puppeteer whose strings needed no thread. The ward cracked. The barrier failed. Three gaunt hags crossed where they never should have been able to, and a flash of emerald light swallowed the clearing. When it faded, roots coiled through the earth, swallowing what remained, while pale mushrooms with angry red blisters pushed silently through the soil.


This video uses a combination of AI-derived assets as well as human controlled image editing and software filters.

And then the vision was gone.

The Bluebell Flames still burned. The forest still stood. But for the briefest moment, it had remembered.


@Sabrina Lyons

Sabrina spent so much energy mentally disagreeing with Solomon Lear's lecture that she accidentally missed most of it. Which was impressive, considering the man had once been a famous magizoologist before retiring into the far more dangerous profession of supervising teenagers. Her attention shifted instead to George, who greeted her with the alarming familiarity of someone who apparently knew her. Sabrina, meanwhile, had absolutely no idea who he was. Rather than admit this, she smiled through the social horror, briefly forgot they were supposed to be partners, remembered a useful potion she had conveniently left in her dorm, and immediately began plotting ways to increase the distance between herself and the Headmaster. Taking George along for the ride, she wandered closer to the treeline, the very place everyone with functioning survival instincts was trying not to approach. Along the way she enthusiastically waved at familiar faces, blissfully unaware that between the spreading fire, suspicious mushrooms, hidden corpses, ancient wards, and a forest full of things Solomon used to study professionally, this particular detention was rapidly becoming the sort of field trip that ended up in future safety manuals. Eventually settling into a new patch of work, Sabrina resumed piling debris while casually asking George the question every detention student eventually hears: "So, what did you do to end up here?"

At least she had the sense to wear gloves, to not active seek out mysterious bitey things.

@Reyna Evergreen & @Isabeau Nevara

What did you do? That was the question of the day. A forger and a facilitator of cheating, both entrepreneurs, which was a common thread oddly enough.

While there was no reason to ask, care or share; they both confessed to their crimes. It would seem that the icy initial reception had quickly faded - they could work together. Reyna would notice that some of the other detention-goers were using their magic to lift the branches and she took inspiration from their efforts.

Reyna cast the Levitation Charm
Roll: (Wisdom 2 Failed

But it did not go as well for her as it did for others, the branches shuttered and then scattered. As frustrating as that ight have been, her lack of neat piles was the a flash of light and an unfortunate incantation caught her attention: Incendio Tria.

That would have been problem enough, if something worse had not been drawn out of the forest. Massive and hairy. The flames drew out a trio of Acromantulas. One of the "smaller" ones, as generous of a statement as that might seem, sprayed a stream of web at Isabeau.

Icebox-sized Acromantula launched web at Isabeau.
Roll: (Evasion 6) 8
Bound!
Can use strength to break the bind as an action. A bladed weapon from an ally and some spells can also free her. While bound, Isabeau cannot dodge, attack or cast spells. You can scream.

The web blanketed the girl soundly, pinning the girl to the ground while fire spread, students stomped about and a trio of agitated arachnids rushed about.

@Winnie Harper, Evelynn Decipio, Marshal Moz0r and Matthew Campbell

Winnie had enjoyed an adequately successful honeymoon. It had contained all the expected components of a wealthy wizarding marriage: luxury accommodations, expensive food, and Mathias quietly attempting to secure his standing in the family hierarchy by producing an heir. Specifically, a half-blood daughter, if fate proved cooperative. Fate, for the moment, had other appointments. There was always next month. And the month after that. Bureaucracy, aristocracy, and biology all had one thing in common: they refused to be rushed.

Back at Hogwarts, Winnie had assembled an unofficial family of her own. Nabi occupied the role of adopted eccentric sibling with surprising ease, and in the recent dispute involving Aamon, Winnie had sided firmly with Nabi, even if Nabi's preferred method of conflict resolution involved attempting to hex the poor boy into next Tuesday. Justice, as interpreted by Hogwarts students, was often less about fairness and more about whose side you happened to be on. Eve, meanwhile, was promptly drafted into the arrangement as Winnie's sister. Half-sister, technically. Wizarding genealogies had a regrettable tendency to resemble conspiracy boards connected with red string.

Around them, detention continued its descent into farce. Fires burned where there should have been gardening, suspicious mushrooms sprouted beside hidden graves, mysterious bottles emerged from ancient cairns, giant spiders were developing strong opinions about personal space, and someone somewhere was almost certainly making another avoidable mistake. Nabi's sharp eyes swept the clearing.

Nabi Keen Eye
Roll: 25% chance - 45

She found nothing unusual, which was perhaps the most unusual outcome possible under the circumstances.

Matthew Campbell, meanwhile, was handling the social aspect of detention with all the enthusiasm of an introverted mime and quietly attempted to drift toward the woods. Evelynn immediately vetoed the plan.

Eve cast Immobulus on Matthew Campbell
Attack (Wisdom 18): 15 - Success
Accuracy (22): 11
Evasion (10): 7

The spell struck true. Matthew froze mid-step, balanced precariously in what could only be described as an artistically unfortunate pose before gravity asserted its contractual obligations. He tipped forward and landed face-first in the dirt with all the dignity one would expect from a magically immobilized teenager. Some adolescent fantasies involved being helpless before a pretty girl. This, regrettably, was not what they had in mind.

@Siobhan McCarty

Siobhan arrived late, most of the other students had already found a partner, so the blind girl was on her own. She would have had some company if she had brought Toaster, but Toaster's lack of posable thumbs and lack of crime made them a poor candidate for detention. Siobhan was a degenerate like the rest, making hooch in her dorm, hopefully in a clean cauldron because the toilet butterbeer always gets a weird aftertaste.

Well, she thought she had left the cat behind. She had been followed by her personal house panther, but cats have keen senses and the non-orange ones a modicum of survival instinct. Out of nowhere the feline nation attacked, biting the young lioness' hand. A fickle creature, they no longer had affection in mind, only escape. Her clumsy attempt to restrain the fur gremlin resulted on scratches from Toaster's meathooks.

Liberated from the blind girl's grip, the cat darted off into high grass. She called out after her pet, announcing a kitchen appliance like a muggle-born. Toaster did not return. She did not remain conflicted for long, deciding ultimately to find her cat who had run off into the obviously dangerous forest so given the name "forbidden." She was going to follow Toaster.

Stealth roll Siobhan
Roll: (Wisdom 7/Evasion 8=7.5) 19 Success

A rather inglorious army crawl in the high grass, Siobhan was in moderately paced pursuit! She did not bother with gloves, believing herself to have poison resistance. That poison oak, sumac or ivy would be of minimal consequence, perhaps even a guide to better management. If only these plants had such immediacy. That didn't, but they also were not what the gloves were for. Further, her face was inches from the ground. It was the small, creeping insects that thrived in the brush, that swarmed when disturbed that she would now meet.

The very same insects that would grow agitated as the girl tried to make her escape.

Siobhan at risk for Infestation
Roll: 25% chance 6

She would feel a pricking that would grow steadily worse. Like a dozen needles were jabbing at her skin. There were things crawling all over her, not that she could see any of them.

@Andrea Woodsburn & @Robin Lockett

Andrea Woodsburn had every intention of surviving detention by being spectacularly unremarkable. She dutifully collected a pair of dragonhide gloves for herself and another for her partner, Robin Lockett, then promptly tripped over a tree root on the way back. In her defense, she could have sworn it wasn't there a moment ago. The root, having spent decades embedded in the earth, declined to comment. The timing of the detention had been chosen specifically because the surrounding flora was considered relatively inactive. In hindsight, the administration may have underestimated the students' ability to create their own hazards.

Robin, meanwhile, embraced the proud wizarding tradition of letting magic do what manual labor could accomplish with considerably more sweat. It was a sensible approach; between venomous plants, cursed objects, and the general tendency of Hogwarts shrubbery to object to being handled, keeping one's hands at a distance was often the healthiest option.

Robin cast the Levitation Charm
Roll: (Wisdom 4

Despite the mediocre execution, practice carried the spell through. Leaves, twigs, and brush floated obediently into tidy little piles. It was shaping up to be one of the few genuinely successful cleanup efforts of the day.

Then someone else set the forest on fire.

As smoke rolled across the clearing and panic spread faster than the flames, three enormous Acromantulas burst from the treeline. The largest ignored the dozens of available targets and charged directly toward Robin and Andrea with all the subtlety of an enraged carriage.

Large Acromantula attempts to skewer Robin and Andrea
Roll Robin (Evasion : 2 - Failed, HIT
Roll Andrea (Evasion 5): 5 - Failed, HIT

200 damage. Victims begin actively bleeding, suffering 100 HP loss per round until treated.

It turned out Robin's Levitation Charm had been extremely effective after all.

Unfortunately, it was the spider that ended up doing most of the lifting.

@Jun Mayumi Mochizuki, @Winter Angelo & @Flame Afterglow.

Jun knew the unwritten rule: keep a healthy distance from other students and their inevitably catastrophic decision-making. Unfortunately, Headmaster Lear had other ideas and had paired her with Winter and Flame, proving once again that administrative optimism was a renewable resource. She started clearing brush, casting diffendo.

Jun cast Diffindo
Roll: (Wisdom 8

The Severing Charm sliced neatly through the overgrown weeds and tangled vines, trimming back the undergrowth with clean precision. For one brief, shining moment, someone in detention made a sensible choice and executed it competently. Given the fires, spiders, cursed mushrooms, hidden bones, and general collapse of good judgment occurring elsewhere along the treeline, this qualified as an exceptional achievement.

@Rosalyn Willows & @Lauren Vanes

Rosie was a good friend, which was unfortunate for Lauren because it meant she wasn't allowed to wallow in self-loathing unchallenged. While Lauren insisted she was dangerous, evil, worthless, and undeserving of anything including life itself Rosie rejected every claim without hesitation. She pointed out that being abused and traumatized, that the narrator must gently remind that clear statements of abuse would breech site rating, did not make someone evil, only hurt. The joke about needing her ears remained firmly in place, though she did briefly glance at Lauren's hands to ensure there were no nearby quills involved. Then came the hug, the kind that was harder to accept than any punishment, followed by a small crocheted fidget Rosie had carried all year through panic attacks and boring classes alike. While the rest of the detention crew dug up wards, corpses, and other unpleasant surprises, Rosie focused on a different excavation entirely: carefully trying to pull the thorns from Lauren's heart one at a time.

Lauren melted into the hug despite herself. For a few precious moments, Rosie's warmth quieted the constant chorus telling her she was evil, worthless, and beyond saving. She accepted the crocheted fidget with a soft thank you, discovering to her surprise that repeatedly squeezing the little yarn ball actually helped. Determined to stop causing trouble and obey the Headmaster's orders, she wandered toward a particularly unstable pile of branches to clear it.

There was a forest fire spreading, a mysterious snake whispering warnings, human bones being unearthed, suspicious mushrooms sprouting from cursed-looking soil, and three Acromantulas rampaging through the treeline. Unfortunately, Lauren's sense of self-preservation remained stubbornly committed to its lifelong vacation. The narrator saw no reason to embellish matters further.

The moment she charged into the unstable pile, gravity did the rest. Branches cascaded down in an avalanche of sticks and splinters, burying her beneath a heap of woodland debris and depositing her unceremoniously on the cold ground below. Lauren possessed roughly the survival instincts of a lemming with a map to the nearest cliff. Still conscious and apparently convinced rescue was preferable to digging herself out, she reached the only conclusion available and screamed at the top of her lungs:

"ROSIE, HELP!"

The truly concerning part, however, was that this would not be the last poor decision of the day. Once extricated from her wooden tomb and afforded the opportunity to reflect upon the fire, the spiders, and the increasingly cursed state of detention, Lauren's next brilliant idea was to head into the Forbidden Forest. At this point, natural selection had begun filling out the paperwork in advance.

Stealth roll Lauren
Roll: (Wisdom 8/Evasion 3=5.5) 11 Failure
Stealth roll Rosalyn
Roll: (Wisdom 7/Evasion 2=5.5) 2 Failure

Stealth was, regrettably, not among either girl's talents. Lauren approached covert movement with the theatrical flair of someone announcing her own entrance, while Rosalyn possessed all the subtlety of an overeager badger crashing through underbrush. Together they were less "elite reconnaissance team" and more "helpful audio cue for every creature within half a mile." If the Acromantulas hadn't already known there were students nearby, they certainly did now. Even the trees seemed mildly embarrassed on their behalf.

@Elisa Shakestra & @Amethyst Castillo

Elisa had arrived at detention to remove weeds, not participate in the dreaded activity known as social interaction. Unfortunately, Amethyst had other ideas. The exchange was brief, awkward, and only mildly hostile before fate decided to make things substantially worse. While Elisa focused on hacking apart stubborn weeds that reminded her suspiciously of certain people in her life, a snake emerged from the brush and immediately bit Amethyst. Not hissed at. Not threatened. Straight to attempted murder. The attack was strange enough to unsettle even a Parselmouth. Snakes were usually more polite than that.

She immediately attempted to separate the snake from the girl, foregoing an opportunity to ask the snake about its intentions or to assess its madness. Perhaps she cared more than the let on about the girl, as the opportunity passed her by.

Elisa Strength Roll:
Roll: (Strength 7) 20 critical success

The girl did more than separate the snake from the girl, she broke that snake in half with her bare hands (Merlin, what have you done). There was no time to address the carnage, panic immediately overrode Elisa's carefully maintained emotional distance as she dragged the younger girl to safety, dug through her bag, and produced an antidote she'd been carrying for exactly this sort of Hogwarts nonsense. While fussing over Amethyst's condition and pretending she wasn't worried, another thought lingered in the back of her mind: if one bizarre snake had slithered out of the undergrowth, there were probably more. Which was unfortunate, because detention was already trying very hard to become a survival exercise.

The application of the antidote would end the poisoned effect on Amethyst.

@Lindsey Springhall & @Crystal Theodora

Lindsey had somehow managed to accomplish the impossible: make a friend during detention. While discussing stolen brooms, caffeinated Pygmy Puffs, and the increasingly plausible theory that the Headmaster was enjoying his tropical beverage a little too much, she and her partner actually got some work done. The younger girl had uncovered one of the ancient ward markers hidden beneath the brush: a cracked stone carved with an old protective symbol that looked less like sophisticated wizardry and more like the sort of thing medieval villagers scratched into doorframes because demons sounded expensive to deal with. Then Archer set part of the forest on fire. Naturally. As panic began spreading through the detention site faster than the actual flames, Lindsey's attention returned to the damaged marker. Curious, armed with absolutely no relevant expertise, and embodying the spirit of every Hogwarts student who had ever accidentally started a subplot, she pointed her wand at the cracked ward and cast Revelio.

Lindsey cast Revelio.
Roll: (Wisdom 16) 7

The spell revealed faint traces of magic lingering within the stone, it did not feel old. In fact, besides the evidence of a previous fire darkening the stone, the ward did not seem old at all. More interestingly, the fracture wasn't natural. Something had broken the ward. Deliberately, violently, and long enough ago that the castle had apparently filed the matter under "future generations can deal with this." Unfortunately for Lindsey, future generations had just arrived.

@Skylar Blue & @Mikaela Hendricks

Skylar's list of concerns was growing at an alarming rate. First there was the mysterious behavior, then the mention of some "Wraith," and now Mika appeared to be speedrunning a full emotional breakdown in the middle of detention. Whatever ancient wards, suspicious mushrooms, hidden corpses, forest fires, or rapidly approaching spiders were currently occupying everyone else's attention immediately dropped to the bottom of Skylar's priority list. Her best friend was hyperventilating, apologizing for things she couldn't explain, and rapidly approaching tears. Unfortunately, the nearest responsible adult was Solomon Lear, a man whose current contribution to the situation appeared to be existing in a chair.

The Wraith, meanwhile, was becoming remarkably talented. It apparently influenced decisions, caused emotional distress, altered behavior, accepted blame with admirable consistency, and generally served as the explanation for an increasingly impressive percentage of Mika's problems. At this rate it would soon be responsible for missed homework assignments and poor exam scores. Skylar, however, lacked both the time and emotional bandwidth to interrogate the finer details of supernatural accountability. Deciding action was preferable to analysis, she did the only thing that seemed reasonable: attempted to drag Mika somewhere quieter. Admittedly, "somewhere quieter" happened to be closer to the edge of the forest, which was exactly the sort of decision that usually resulted in students finding themselves in detention to begin with.

Mikaela started to creep towards the treeline.

Mikaela Stealth check - attempting to sneak into the forest.
Roll: (Wisdom 7/Evasion 6=6.5) 2 failed

But as she made her way towards the forest, her presence was notable by not only the headmaster but also the detention-attending/suffering prefects.

@Leo Noxley & @Erast Yan

Leo was having a difficult afternoon. His friends were scattered across other work crews, he was stuck with Erast Yan, and he was currently performing manual labor, a phrase that would likely cause several Noxley relatives to require immediate medical attention. Matters deteriorated further when Erast noticed the brief flash of crimson in Leo's eyes and immediately weaponized the discovery with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The revelation rattled Leo more than he cared to admit, though the fact that Erast subsequently positioned himself to block others from noticing the change complicated his irritation in deeply inconvenient ways. Thankfully, a suspicious pile of black stones provided a welcome distraction. While Erast enthusiastically dismantled the cairn like an archaeologist moments away from unleashing an ancient curse, Leo lined up the stones, cleaned them with a quick Scourgify, and smirked. "Looks like you're the one slacking, Mr. Yan." If things continued at their current pace, the pair would either become friends, murder each other, or accidentally uncover something that made both options seem preferable.

Leo cast Scourgify
Roll: (Wisdom 5) 18

As the dirt and grime vanished from the stones, it revealed that the cairn was more than a simple pile of rocks. Hidden within the center was a small cache of stoppered glass bottles tucked carefully between the stones. Each contained a dark, smoke-like substance that swirled sluggishly inside the glass despite being completely sealed. Hogwarts students possessed an almost supernatural confidence when confronted with unknown artifacts. The Scourgify did not just clean the stones, it washed away the dirt and mud that had made the class bottles near opaque, revealing clear glass beneath. The moment the bottles became transparent, something strange happened. The black smoke inside immediately began to unravel, thinning and dissipating as though the grime itself had been helping contain it. Within seconds, several bottles that had appeared full now sat nearly empty, leaving only faint wisps clinging to the bottoms.

Perhaps this discovery was concerning enough that even the rivalry between Yan and Noxley could briefly took second place.

@Della Barfield & @Dahlia Lee

"яυη, gιяℓ. тнє вιg σηє ωαкєѕ."

That instantly became the most important thing happening.

Every hair on Della's body stood on end. The color drained from her face. Someone or rather something had just spoken to her in Parseltongue. Not Greta. Not another student showing off an exceedingly niche talent. A snake. A real snake. Worse still, no one else seemed to notice. Around her, detention carried on with remarkable normalcy: students dug up suspicious mushrooms, unearthed human remains, discovered caches of eerie bottles, started fires, and generally demonstrated why Solomon Lear had job security. Della skipped neatly over confusion and landed squarely in panic. Grabbing Dahlia by the arm, she announced that something was very wrong and made for the Headmaster at a pace suggesting that manual labor had suddenly become the safest activity available.

What Greta might know:

• That is unquestionably another snake. Not a person speaking Parseltongue, not a mimicry charm, not a trick of the wind. A snake.
• It is speaking proper Parseltongue, though the cadence is strange. Familiar enough to understand, wrong enough to be unsettling.
• It knows Della's name, which immediately elevates the situation from "odd" to "absolutely not."
• Greta does not recognize the voice itself, but she has the nagging instinct that she should. Like catching a scent from years ago or seeing a shed skin from a snake she once crossed paths with.
• The voice feels old. Not elderly, but old in the way a forgotten burrow is old.
• Greta does not like it.
• Greta is uncertain whether the voice is warning Della or hunting her.
• Most importantly, Greta is afraid. Not panicked, not fleeing, but deeply uneasy in a way snakes rarely are without reason.

Or, in Greta's own assessment:

"ѕηαкє. яєαℓ ѕηαкє."

"кησωѕ ∂єℓℓα."

"∂ση'т кησω νσι¢є."

"ѕнσυℓ∂ кησω νσι¢є."

"ωяσηg. ωяσηg. ωяσηg."

"σℓ∂ ѕηαкє."

"∂ση'т ℓιкє."

"∂єℓℓα ѕтαу ¢ℓσѕє."

"∂єℓℓα вє ¢αяєƒυℓ."

Perhaps the most unsettling detail was that Greta never urged Della to run. Instead, she insisted she stay close, implying that whatever lurked nearby was already closer than either of them would have liked.

Meanwhile, Dahlia dutifully looked around.

Dahlia observes.
Roll: (Wisdom 5) 4 - Failed

She spotted exactly what anyone would expect to find during a Hogwarts detention: smoke, panicked students, reckless spellcasting, and general chaos. In other words, nothing that stood out as unusual.

@Laasya Manjunath & @Harumi Everdane

Harumi was relieved when Laasya agreed to partner up. Not because the task was difficult, but because doing manual labor alone was somehow even worse than doing manual labor under the supervision of Solomon Lear. Besides, suffering was traditionally a group activity at Hogwarts. The pair set to work clearing debris, Harumi starting with smaller branches while silently appreciating the gloves. Between Quidditch captaincy and sports training, she at least understood the value of warming up before throwing her back out for the sake of detention. After a while she attempted conversation, asking Laasya what crime had earned her a spot in this illustrious gathering before cheerfully admitting her own offense: forging permission slips to visit Hogsmeade. A bold strategy, if not a particularly successful one.

As the work continued, Harumi gradually drifted closer and closer to the forest's edge, which was concerning because she had the survival instincts of a particularly adventurous potato. The temptation to sneak into the Forbidden Forest resurfaced almost immediately. Fortunately, she recognized this as a terrible idea. Unfortunately, recognizing bad ideas had never reliably prevented her from pursuing them. Between the spiders, mysterious voices, suspicious mushrooms, hidden corpses, ancient wards, and whatever fresh catastrophe detention was currently producing, the forest seemed determined to advertise itself as a terrible destination. Harumi still found herself considering it anyway.

@Jada Blake & @Hana Suzuki

Hana approached the mountain of debris with all the enthusiasm of someone reporting for unpaid labor, only to catch Jada preparing to solve the problem with magic instead. She pointed out, quite reasonably, that the dragonhide gloves were probably intended to be used and that detention lost some of its educational value if you simply levitated everything away.

Meanwhile, Jada was beginning to question her assumptions about her fellow detainees. Some of them looked exactly like the sort of people who ended up in detention. Others, like Angel Dayes, seemed suspiciously wholesome for the occasion. Either Angel had been framed, or Jada's people-reading skills required immediate recalibration. With no satisfying answers forthcoming, she returned to the glamorous task of moving sticks from one pile to another while occasionally eyeing the Forbidden Forest and reminding herself that sneaking into it in front of eighty witnesses would be difficult to explain. Meanwhile, several students had elected to pull weeds by hand, which Jada considered compelling evidence that not everyone at Hogwarts was operating at full capacity. After a few minutes of this forced labor masquerading as character building, she voiced the question on everyone's mind: did detention come with breaks? Receiving no immediate answer, she reached the obvious conclusion. She was a witch. She had a wand. The debris had no wand. It was time for magic to start carrying its own weight.

She cast the levitation charm, attempting to lighten the load.

Jada cast the levitation charm
Roll: (wisdom 7) 7

Jada would find the work easier when the used magic rather than muggle means. A conclusion several other students had also come to, but some made more reasonable decisions than others.

After a brief internal debate, Hana abandoned her own work ethic in favor of solidarity, deciding that if Jada was going to risk being caught using spells, they would face the consequences together. Her contingency plan was also admirably simple: stand nearby, hope Headmaster Lear didn't notice, and if he did, sprint toward the pile and pretend they'd been working the whole time.

@Lyanna Oak & @Valour Argentum

Lyanna had arrived at detention with all the focus of a hunter stalking prey. Not the Headmaster, not the punishment, and certainly not Remy Break, who was currently discovering that making rude gestures at Solomon Lear was a surprisingly interactive experience. No, her attention was fixed entirely upon Valour. The moment she spotted the familiar raven-haired girl in the crowd, the rest of the detention population ceased to matter. A greeting was exchanged, references to their failed Hogsmeade operation were made, and within moments the pair were already behaving less like students serving punishment and more like operatives looking for opportunities. Which, to be fair, was probably what got them here in the first place.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the detention site had recently become a magnet for poor decisions. Archer and Silas had decided fire was an appropriate landscaping tool, smoke was beginning to drift through the clearing, and several students were now treating the resulting chaos as an invitation to investigate things. Naturally, Lyanna and Valour were among them. While others fled from suspicious circumstances, they marched toward them. The flames had burned away portions of the brush, exposing ground that had been hidden for years. Most sensible people would have looked at the smoke, the damaged wardline, the strange discoveries, and the growing sense of impending disaster and concluded that today was not the day for curiosity.

Lyanna closed her eyes, breathed in the smoke, and cast Revelio instead. Because apparently the detention roster had reached the point where common sense was no longer a prerequisite for enrollment.

The Revelio rippled through the smoke, peeling back the haze like a curtain. Beneath the scorched brush lay shallow depressions where ancient cairns had once stood, fragments of blackened ward stones etched with faded protective sigils, and strips of earth untouched by sunlight for years until Archer and Silas helpfully introduced them to open flame. Wisps of residual magic shimmered across the ground like cooling embers, revealing that this forgotten edge of the grounds had once been painstakingly maintained before nature and apparently several generations of teenagers had reclaimed it.

The fire had not uncovered gold, secret tunnels, or an abandoned stash of Butterbeer.

It had uncovered history.

At Hogwarts, history was almost always more dangerous.

Meanwhile, Valour had come spectacularly overprepared. While most students had remembered gloves and perhaps a water bottle, she had somehow decided that carrying herbicide into detention was the obvious choice. Her reasoning, astonishingly, was internally consistent: the woods were dangerous, therefore she should immediately head toward them. As smoke billowed and the fire consumed patches of brush, she drew the potion and began methodically spraying a route ahead. The concoction would not instantly dissolve the undergrowth: it was herbicide, not divine judgment, but the grasses and weeds withered quickly enough to carve a narrow trail through the greenery. In any other circumstance, this would have been the worst landscaping decision of the afternoon. Given the competition, it barely cracked the top five.


@Linda Ramirez

Linda was distinctly unimpressed by the concept of being paired with strangers. In her view, detention was for enduring punishment, not networking. What she failed to appreciate was that the pairings had very little to do with companionship and everything to do with survivability. A second person could call for help, drag you out of danger, or at the very least provide a more interesting witness statement. Whether Linda's assigned partner would prove useful in any of those capacities remained debatable. At present, her odds alone might actually have been better.

Linda cast Bluebell Flame
Roll: (Wisdom 10) 9

Azure fire blossomed at the tip of her wand, spilling across the brush in cool, ghostly tongues that danced without consuming the vegetation. The Bluebell Flames glowed with an eerie serenity, their sapphire light casting long shadows across the scorched earth and broken ward stones. Beautiful. Controlled. Entirely unlike the inferno several of her classmates had so thoughtfully unleashed elsewhere.

For just a moment, though, the forest seemed to remember.

The blue light reflected in blackened stones that had once known flames of a similar hue, long ago, when this stretch of ground had been the site of something carefully contained and never fully resolved. The wards had been repaired. The ashes buried. The stories forgotten. But forests have excellent memories and dreadful manners. The trees stood silent, as if watching old embers flicker to life, and the breeze carried the faint impression that some debts, once incurred, were content to wait.

Costanza caught a flicker of impossible blue at the edge of her vision. Linda's Bluebell Flames danced harmlessly nearby, achieving precisely nothing useful in the ongoing crisis, unless one counted making the scenery more dramatic. Yet the forest responded as though it recognized the fire. The blue light reflected off weathered stones and blackened bark with eerie familiarity, as if this corner of Hogwarts had seen such flames before and had been waiting, patiently, for them to return.

Then the world blinked.

Not forward, but backward.

The smoke became mist. The cries of students vanished, replaced by oppressive silence. Hanging from the branches were glass lanterns, each cradling the same unnatural blue flames, marking a winding path through the woods. Shadowed figures moved among them, removing the lanterns one by one until darkness reclaimed the trail. A child's hand scratched waxy runes across an ancient wardstone with innocent determination. A mask settled over a frightened boy's face, only for terror to melt into a serene, unsettling smile. Somewhere beyond the trees stood another figure, unseen but unmistakably in control, a puppeteer whose strings needed no thread. The ward cracked. The barrier failed. Three gaunt hags crossed where they never should have been able to, and a flash of emerald light swallowed the clearing. When it faded, roots coiled through the earth, swallowing what remained, while pale mushrooms with angry red blisters pushed silently through the soil.


This video uses a combination of AI-derived assets as well as human controlled image editing and software filters.

And then the vision was gone.

The Bluebell Flames still burned. The forest still stood. But for the briefest moment, it had remembered.

@Sebastien Cain Knox, @Angel Dayes & @Blair Annabelle Du Pont

The Forbidden Forest tugged at Sebastien's curiosity with all the subtlety of a siren. He heard only the hiss of a snake in the grass, oblivious to the fact that his companion might have understood actual words. Instead, his attention remained fixed on the girl he had awkwardly approached, managing the impressive feat of complimenting and offending her in the same conversation. Her response was swift and icy: she'd rather work with someone else. Sebastien took the rejection with all the grace of a damp firework, muttered an embarrassed apology, and retreated before the ground could kindly swallow him whole.

Left partnerless and armed with gloves, shears, and questionable judgment, Sebastien weighed his options: find another partner, work alone, or make the day "interesting." Naturally, he chose the worst one. After making sure no one was watching, he quietly slipped away from the other students and wandered deeper into the trees, lured by the promise of adventure and blissfully unaware that the forest had a long history of punishing exactly this sort of initiative.

Stealth roll Siobhan
Roll: (Wisdom 6/Evasion 2=4) 7 Failure

Of course, Sebastien possessed all the stealth of a wardrobe being pushed down a flight of marble stairs. Branches snapped beneath his boots, brambles enthusiastically grabbed at his robes, and an offended bird exploded from a nearby bush with enough indignation to notify every living thing within earshot that an amateur explorer was on the move. If his plan had been to vanish quietly into the Forbidden Forest, he instead announced himself like the opening act at a Quidditch final.

His attempted escape did succeed in attracting something, however.

Unfortunately, it was Angel.

Not the celestial variety with wings and divine wisdom, but the Slytherin model: perpetually energetic, operating on what appeared to be a medically concerning baseline level of caffeine, and now zeroing in on Sebastien with the unstoppable momentum of an excited puppy that had spotted someone trying very hard to be left alone.

What Happened?
• The detention has devolved into complete chaos. Students have uncovered damaged wards, mysterious cairns, strange bottles, human remains, poisonous-looking mushrooms, and awakened dangerous creatures.
• Archer Duncan cast an empowered Incendio Tria on dry brush, accidentally starting a spreading forest fire that quickly grew out of control.
• Silas compounded the disaster by also casting Incendio, causing multiple overlapping fires.
• Archer, Prat, Julia, Silas, and Angel all ended up catching fire to varying degrees as the blaze spread. 180 damage/round.
• The fire disturbed Hogwarts' ancient boundary and drove three Acromantulas out of the Forbidden Forest, creating an immediate life-threatening situation.
• A giant Acromantula severely injured Andrea Woodsburn and Robin Lockett, skewering them and leaving them actively bleeding. 200 damage, 100 HP loss per round until treated.
• Another Acromantula trampled Aislin Darragh, breaking her ribs. 200 damage.
• A third Acromantula webbed Isabeau Nevara to the ground, leaving her unable to act without assistance.
• Remy Break insulted Headmaster Lear and was suspended upside down (spell ended at the end of the round), while Lear confiscated suspicious items from his pockets, including a collection of teeth, a stolen wand, and a padlock.
• Denise and Logan narrowly avoided a swarm of aggressive insects while clearing brush.
• Jessamine Hemlock became covered in biting yellow insect-like creatures hidden in the grass.
Siobhan secretly crawled into the forest chasing her cat, Toaster, only to become infested by swarming insects herself. 100 damage.
• Lauren Vanes buried herself beneath a collapsing pile of branches, screamed for Rosalyn's help, and still intended to sneak into the Forbidden Forest afterward.
• Lauren and Rosalyn attempted to sneak away, but did so with essentially no stealth whatsoever.
• Sebastien Knox also attempted to sneak into the Forbidden Forest, but announced his presence to the world by crashing noisily through the brush and attracting Angel's attention.
• Della Barfield heard a mysterious snake speaking Parseltongue directly to her, warning that "the big one wakes." Her own snake, Greta, confirmed another ancient snake was nearby and was deeply unsettled.
• Richard and Skylar uncovered a hidden cairn containing stoppered bottles filled with dark, smoke-like fluid.
• Leo and Erast discovered similar bottles, and cleaning them caused the smoke trapped inside to mysteriously dissipate despite remaining sealed.
• Colin identified 2 sources of Darkest Night.
• Paul Turner cleaned a damaged ward stone, revealing an intricate daisy-wheel rune hidden beneath centuries of grime.
• Lindsey cast Revelio on another ward marker, discovering it had been violently and deliberately broken rather than naturally damaged.
• Lyanna cast Revelio through the smoke, revealing collapsed cairns, broken ward stones, and magical traces showing the area had once been carefully maintained.
• Pyxis uprooted a strange white mushroom, only to discover that its roots had grown through a buried human skull, accompanied by a horrifying scream from the fungus itself.
• The mushrooms appear to be Myconids, a species previously thought eradicated from Hogwarts after an earlier infestation.
• Linda's Bluebell Flames unexpectedly triggered a psychic echo in the land, causing Costanza to experience a vision of:

• Blue-flame lanterns hanging in the forest.
• A child drawing runes on ward stones with crayons.
• A frightened masked boy becoming eerily calm.
• A hidden puppet-master figure.
• A ward barrier breaking.
• Three hags crossing the breached boundary.
• A flash of green light killing them.
• Their bodies being reclaimed by roots as blistered white mushrooms grew from the earth.

• Damien had previously spotted an unknown man wearing a long coat and brimmed hat standing by the treeline who did not appear to be staff or a student.
• Mikaela attempted to sneak toward the forest, but was immediately noticed by staff and prefects.
• Elisa tore a venomous snake in half with her bare hands to save Amethyst, then successfully administered an antidote, curing the poison.
• Matthew Campbell tried to wander into the woods, but Eve immobilized him with Immobulus, causing him to topple face-first into the dirt.
• Throughout the detention, multiple students have begun uncovering evidence that Hogwarts' ancient protective wards were deliberately damaged in the past, with hidden cairns, broken runes, mysterious smoke-filled bottles, and psychic echoes suggesting a forgotten magical catastrophe tied to blue flames, hags, and breached defenses.
• Solomon Lear was swallowed by the earth.

The teeth? Yeah, buddy he's not putting that in the lost and found! That's his now!

He heard the horrid words of crime uttered to him. Surely that qualified as a hate crime right? The first year giant loudly hissed in pain as his face collided against the ground. How dare that man humiliate him like that? Remy did not deserve humiliation, he deserved to have every gold in the world handed to him on a silver platter, every diamonds sewn into his clothes. He did not deserve shame.

He didn't move for a moment though, his neck a little sore from the impact. But when he did, he got up to stare at the dwarf that was in front of him; Harvey. He was probably the size of a soccer ball, could probably punt him all the way to Mexico from here!

He flipped off Harvey to acknowledge his insult and hopefully make him feel like he was being insulted too with the bird that earned him a good chunk of time spent upside down like a bat in a cave.

"Face broke you no hurt me more." He snarled, spitting on the ground next to Harvey. But something came to mind, he saw a bunch of bugs around Logan. He looked back at Harvey and a smirk was wide on his face. Sure, he couldn't swirlie him in a toilet out in the great wild, but he sure as hell could do something equally as fun. On the plus side, he'd be helping Logan!

He attempted to grab Harvey, if he were successful, he was going to rub his face where the bugs were prominent. Hopefully he wasn't allergic.
---
@Harvey Barrow @Denise Yarbrough @Solomon Lear @Logan Baird
Action: "Swirlie"'ing Harvey in the bug swarm if successful
Race and Abilities - Part Giant Year 1 (Giant Language, Unskilled Caster (crit fail 15% spellcasting), +30% physical damage, -20% damage taken)
Stats - Sta 3 | Eva 10 | Str 7 | Wis 0 | Arc 0 | Acc 10
Spells and Potions - Pretty much all of y1 spells except for charms as of this post.

WC: 347

Interactions: Aislin

Date: June 2026

Time: Unknown

OOC Note: Reducio Waking up to a giant spider was not how i thought i'd start replies for the day but im not complaining

Mentions: Reducio @Aislin Darragh

Speech: Reducio #6397b0

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━sta 06|eva 05| str 03| wis 08| arc 07| acc 06━━━

Well Fawkes had been right about one thing. Incendio Tria had definitly led to a forest fire. Seemingly someone else also had the bright idea of using Incendio so now the area around them had caught. She hadn't been fast enough to reach Archer. In fact she had barely even gotten past quarter of the distance. That's when she heard it. A scream behind her.

Fawkes turned around and froze. Her eyes widdened as she saw a giant spider start approaching from the woods. Her eyes glanced down. Aislin was still there. Fawkes began to run back to get to her but it was too late.

Crunch

She looked in horror as Aislin had been trampled by the spider. There was blood. Of course there was why wouldn't there be. AISLIN! She yelled as she could feel tears. Watching someone be crushed right in front of her was horrifying. Sure she had seen it in her nightmares but this wasn't a nightmare. No this was reality. And the reality was her housemate, her fellow duelling captain, her friend was being crushed right now.

Fawkes wiped away her tears. She had to do something. She had to get the spider away somehow. She stood thinking as her mind cycled through numerous spells but nothing was coming up. The best way would be transfiguration but there was no way she could do it on something so big nor did she know a spell that could be used on spiders.

It hit her. Levitation. The Levitation charm could most certainly help. But what to use it on? She was certain she wouldn't be able to lift the giant spider into the air with it. And the charm wouldn't work on Aislin- wait. If she could levitate Aislin's clothes when the spider lifted it's leg, she could get her out of the way. It was a long shot but she had to try something. She had to get her out of there somehow. Otherwise her injuries would be much much worse. WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA She yelled her wand aimed at the injured girl.

━━━Prodigal Astronomy Learner━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Action: Attempting to cast the levitation charm on Aislin's clothes to get her out of there.
Detention roll: 16, forging permission slips
Stats: Stamina: 6, Evasion: 5, Strength: 3, Wisdom: 8, Arcane Power: 7, Accuracy: 6
Abilities: Prodigal Astronomy Learner
Thread tracker: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Date June xx, 2026 Time (morning) Location Caretaker's Cabin, Hogwarts Grounds Tags interacting with @Andrea Woodsburn

Reducio Any color-coded text (red/blue/green/yellow) is intended to represent the speaking/thinking character's house or former house, other characters or characters with their house unknown to me will be grey. Colored italics are thought; colored "quotations" are spoken. Uncolored italics are usually books or songs etc., while uncolored quotations are usually meant to emphasize the included word or make it sarcastic.

Before everything happened, Robin shifted his gaze from the forest's depths to Andrea's uneasy expression. It was a subtle frown accompanied by raised eyebrows to indicate suspicion. The girl said nothing, and he didn't bother to voice his concerns either. It was only instinctual after all, no need to worry others with his "bad feeling".

Then, it happened. The sound arrived first, a terrible cackling noise, followed by the warmth of a fireplace. Smoke emerged from where it most shouldn't have—the forest—and spread across the clearing filled with surprised students. Most panicked, but Robin was rather calm. He wasn't heroic enough to investigate the source and possibly put it out, the boy just wanted to leave the vicinity and run to safety. He figured that someone should inform the Headmaster of this incident, if he wasn't aware yet.

"I'll go call the Headmaster." Robin made sure to inform Andrea of his intentions before he started running. However, just as he took his first step, a sharp pain pierced his side, then he felt something retract.

As Robin looked down, he blinked at a gaping wound, realizing that he was bleeding like a poked water balloon. This is when he panicked. Robin pressed his hands on where the blood emerges, hoping to stop the bleeding before his already fragile stamina runs out.

The boy's head runs fast with a million questions, but at least one of them can be answered by looking behind him, so that's what he did.

A giant spider. Black and furry . . . specifically an Acromantula. The species had been mentioned by his parents multiple times, but seeing one in person is entirely different from hearing their stories from work. Robin tried to calm his beating heart down, like that can help him not pump out as much blood as he is now. The boy turned to look at Andrea, finding that she was also hit by these rampaging spiders.

"Run!" After leaving his final word of advice, Robin took off himself too. Before disappearing into the flock of fleeing students, he removed a bloody hand from his waist, griped his wand tight, and pointed it towards the sky with desperation in his voice: "Periculum!"

Reducio

action 1: run towards the Headmaster
action 2: cast the red sparks charm

wand movement:	incantation:	enunciation:
point towards sky	Periculum	puh-RIK-yoo-lum

action 3: keep running

"Hey!" That was all Mikey heard at first. Just that one word from Headmaster Lear, sharp enough to cut through the shouting and the smoke and the crackling fire somewhere off near the trees. Mikey turned his head, thinking the Headmaster was finally about to yell at everyone properly. Maybe stop the fire. Maybe stop whatever else was going wrong, because at this point detention had stopped feeling like detention and started feeling like some sort of punishment the earth itself had invented.

But then the ground moved. For one horrible second, Mikey thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. The grass around Lear’s chair dipped, softening like wet sand. Black roots slid up through the dirt, quiet and slow, curling around the legs of the chair like they had all the time in the world. There was no explosion or dramatic flash of magic. The earth simply opened. Mikey froze as the chair sank lower. Then Lear went with it. His stomach dropped so hard he almost forgot how to breathe. One moment the Headmaster was there, the only adult who looked like he might actually know what to do, and the next he was gone beneath the ground like the earth had decided to take him as a pet.

Mikey did not even realize he had taken a step backward until his heel caught on a branch. He turned fast, too fast, nearly stumbling over the weeds they had been clearing only minutes earlier. Smoke drifted across the clearing, making his eyes sting. Students were screaming now. Some were running. Someone was shouting about spiders or snakes, and somewhere close by Remy hit the dirt with a hard thud as the spell holding him upside down finally broke.

Mikey barely looked at him. "Avery!" he called. His voice came out rougher and higher pitched than he wanted. He hated that. He hated that he sounded scared, even though he was. Of course he was. The Headmaster had just disappeared into the ground, and Mikey had no idea where Avery was. For a few seconds, he could not find her. Those few seconds felt awful. His heart pounded as he searched through the blur of branches and smoke and moving bodies. He kept thinking about how humid it had been earlier. How the air already felt heavy before the smoke. Avery had trouble with that sometimes. Her lungs had been a problem in the past. She tried to pretend she was fine, but Mikey noticed more than he said.

He saw her. Relief hit him first, so strong it almost made him dizzy. Then fear came right back behind it, because seeing her did not mean she was safe. He pushed toward her, his wand already in his hand even though he had no plan at all.. He wanted to do something, but every thought in his head seemed to crash into the next one before it could become useful. When he reached her, he touched her arm lightly, just enough to make sure she was there. "We have to move," he said quickly, looking from her to the treeline and then back again. "We can’t stay this close to the forest."

His eyes flicked toward the spot where Lear had vanished. The ground looked still now. That made It feel worse. Mikey stared at it for half a second, waiting for it to shift again, waiting for something else to be dragged under on maybe the headmaster would pop back out and it was all a joke. Nothing happened. A crash sounded from the trees, followed by the horrible scrape of something that sounded huge moving through brush. Mikey turned before he could stop himself and stepped partly in front of Avery. It was stupid. He knew it was stupid. He was not big enough to protect her from something like that. He was barely sure he could protect himself. Deep down he was hoping she would protect him. Also deep down he knew that she would.

Action: Preparing for the worst

WC: 203 Date: June, 2026 Location: Grounds Speech: #006e00

@Hana Suzuki :Mentions Open to Interactions Charmer :Abilities Casting Extinguo at Julia :Action

It was the smell of burning that turned Jada's attention away from the absolutely thrilling task of moving sticks from one pile to another. "Do you smell that?" she asked Hana. It was more of a rhetorical question, really, who couldn't smell it? She cast a glance across the grounds, finding a large clump of flames near a group of older students. A couple of them had their wands out, it would seem as though they had started a fire on purpose. "Those idiots. What did they even need fire -"

She stopped mid-sentence as the students caught on fire. It truly was a horrific sight, people shouting as their clothing and hair caught fire, one she surely wouldn’t be forgetting in a long time. First there was one then two, then three until all four of them were entangled in the flames next to the, now raging, bushfire.

She ran on impulse. Not away from the fire but towards it, her wand at the ready. This was stupid, she should be running away, but hell, she wasn’t about to let the others die. Even Slytherins could be helpful for once. She cast the fire extinguishing spell at the closest person to her.

Stamina: 8│Evasion: 7│Strength: 3│Wisdom: 7│ArcPower: 6│Accuracy: 4

Credit to Tabitha Murrey

Interacting: Acromantula | Open to interactions!
Mentioning: @Fawkes Chaos
Reason for detention: [d20: 11], unauthorized duelling

Aislin Darragh knew that giant spiders -- acromantulas, the technical term -- lived in the forest. What she did not know was that they were so close. She would have told you they existed in the dark depths, far in where only a well-equipped, intrepid explorer or researcher could find. Only so much could be learned from the tales of relatives and a two-week greedy pursuit of the Hogwarts library's arachnid collection.

When the acromantulas appeared through the now-blazing treeline, her first reaction was not to run; first, she stared. The trio of acromantulas were the most fascinating, terrifying things she had ever seen, and she'd never expected to get this close. But this was too close. Aislin loved creatures more than most people, and bugs of their many varieties most of all, but she knew there was a great difference between little spiders, dangerous only if they had venom, and these lumbering beasts. These had a classification as XXXXX, as killers of witches, were violent and strong and intelligent and ginormous.

She took no reckless step forward. Aislin stepped back, weighing if telling Fawkes to run would bring too much attention to themselves -- not compared to the firestarters, surely, but when had Fawkes moved so far forward? -- and snapped a stick beneath her boot, a quiet little crack. Maybe that had been enough to lock eight eyes onto herself, or maybe they somehow knew she'd been talking about them, or maybe she was just very, very unlucky in that moment for no reason at all.

In a whole crowd of students, some of them much closer to the forest, an acromantula rushed at her. Wide-eyed with realization, she did try to run. She dropped the couple of sticks she'd collected, abandoned the shears where she'd left them on the ground, and quickly discovered the hazards of trying to run over untended, debris-littered terrain. A branch snagged on her bootlaces, nearly tripping her, and she barely made it another few steps and a harried glance over her shoulder before the beast reached her.

She screamed when she went down (like a little girl, which she was), pitched and frightened and briefly loud enough to be heard over all the other chaos, and landed hard on her back with a giant spider leg shoved into her chest. CRACK. She registered the noise first, how loud it sounded. Her second thought, pain-hazy, was I wish I had a camera, like the one Christine took photos of her and her mam with. It really would be a good, rare shot: acromantula seconds away from devouring its prey. More obvious thoughts circled after that. The pain, obviously, sort of sharp and pressing and like her whole body had been dunked in hot water. The barely processed, oh, I'm going to die. Most of all, though, she started to panic because she couldn't breathe.

"Please ge' off," she wheezed, accent coming out thick. She'd read that acromantulas were advanced enough to understand human speech, not that this one was likely to care if it did. The clarity of her head had disappeared somewhere in the fire of her chest; all she could think to do was throw her hands up as a flimsy defense and watch through the cracks, awaiting pincers and venom.

Action: Protecting her head and neck

Stats: STA: 7 • EVA: 6 • STR: 4 • WIS: 7 • ARC: 5 • ACC: 7
Abilities: Charmer (opponents: N/A, we're all friends here =])
Inventory: Wand, dragonhide gloves, shears, assorted pocket contents (bread roll, bag of jelly slugs, small can, rock)

Post Tracker: 1 | 2 | 3

LOCATION | Hogwarts, Grounds DATE | June 2026 INTERACTING | Open | @Andrea Woodsburn

“ Animals ” 01:11 ─── ◉ ───────⠀03:50

x | OUTFIT #ffffff | DIALOGUE @ Robin Lockett | @Flame Afterglow | @Winter Angelo | MENTIONING

Success. Something Jun throughly enjoyed. Cutting down some branches had been the mundane, easy part. Something she would have liked to believe she could do in her sleep. The cut was precise and neat. But even through precision and concentration, it had become increasingly hard to focus. Other Students looking at weird mushrooms? Absolutely easy to ignore. Little fires because some were incapable of not causing chaos? Almost normal. Sudden screams? Hard to ignore. Her Detention partners were somewhere around here, but with the developing of complete chaos, Jun hoped they were smart enough to stay where they were - or better: run and hide. They were first years after all, even when graduation was coming soon. The current development was not something Jun would have suspected of an afternoon of clearing branches. Why couldn’t there ever be a normal day in Hogwarts? Why were people always stupid enough to get themselves into trouble?

Oh but Jun had not even seen what chaos had evoked upon the overgrown grounds. Not until she turned around fully.

There was a spreading forest fire that would most likely have required immediate attention, but there was something far greater than the mayhem of burning bushes going on. Students were catching on fire, three Acromantulas were coming out of the forest. To say Jun was shocked, was an understatement. Freezing was always something she had hated, something she connected with trauma. Freezing at the sight of her father‘s bleeding form, at the sight of a beast with claws and sharp teeth, at the feeling of those claws and teeth burying into her and she hadn’t done anything. Nothing to protect her father, Mey or Hoshi. But none of the three were here now and Jun would do all but freeze again.

However, action without thought was equally dangerous. Acromantulas were XXXXX rated, often greater than 15 feet and… dangerous to humankind. Care of Magical Creature lessons would only be starting in third year, but Jun wasn’t stupid. Acromantula’s were known to not shy away from feasting on humans. Only that Jun was unsure whether she knew a solution to fricking giant spiders crushing students. Two students were actively bleeding, one had been trampled and another was webbed to the ground. All while at least 5 other students were catching fire, others were being swarmed with bugs and Headmasters Lear had vanished from the face of earth.

Jun felt her stomach churn with nausea and how her heart thumbed heavily in her chest, causing all she could hear to be the blood rushing through her ears. She felt her muscles tense and her heightened sense of hearing causing no good in this chaos. But panicking was no good either now.

The Ravenclaw would have just liked to disappear into the ground, she really did. But fear was not something one could let take over. It looked like someone was trying to help one of the crushed people, another was running towards those catching on fire and Jun momentarily let her thoughts spiral - just for a split second - before she moved.
Figuring out who needed help first was difficult, figuring out what spells would ward off a giant spider was even more difficult. Everyone injured, crawled upon by insects or catching fire needed helps. However, skin could be healed, bleeding out was not fixable.

But what spell stopped bleeding out? Jun broke out into a run between fleeing students, chaos and fire and hoped some would cast extinguishing charms on the fires. What she also hoped was that the giant spider, neither the two smaller ones, would see her or think to attack.

If she succeeded to reach the two bleeding girls, Jun would recognise them both as First Year Ravenclaw’s and since she couldn’t - and wouldn’t want to choose, she’d stop by the first one, pull off her own jacket and press it to the bleeding wound to attempt and stop the blood from coming out. There was no way she could know exactly how intense the injuries were, she just hoped someone would help all others.

„H-Hey, you’re going to be okay..“ Jun heard herself say to the injured girl and only then realized that her voice was trembling. She had no idea whether anyone here would be okay after this. Neither was she sure whether this would do anything to help, but it was worth the attempt.

•• ACTION •• Attempting to reach Andrea and stop the bleeding of her wound by pressing her own Jacket to it
•• STATS •• | Stamina • 8 | Evasion • 8 | Strength • 1 | Wisdom • 8 | Arcane Power • 3 | Accuracy • 7
•• RACE & ABILITIES ••| Werewolf | Evasive Maneuvers |