A quiet corner PV Aisling Doyle

Skylar flipped a few pages of the book before she was excited about Aisling arriving. Her eyes brightened when she found the interested things she’d been looking for.

“See this?” She said while taped her finger against a few lines in the book.

“This… the Diricawl. It looks like a dodo, but it can vanish in a puff of feathers when startled and reappear somewhere else. Muggles thought it went extinct because they didn’t realize it could disappear like that.” Skylar smiled faintly, half amused by the thought.

“That matches what my aunt said,” she added. “Some odd birds could vanish when frightened, leaving only feathers behind.”

Skylar noticed Aisling watching her curiously.

A girl said, "From what you told me back in the greenhouse," she added, "you made it sound like your aunt came across creatures that were lesser known. I ... I mean, I could be wrong, but I'm not sure if the beasts your aunt talked about would be in our classes, especially since we're first years.”

Skylar frowned a little.

“I don’t think we’ll learn about these in our first or even second year,” Skylar admitted, glancing back at the page.

“But I kind of get what my aunt meant now. As the book said, the Diricawl can make itself vanish completely even Muggles believed they’d died out. Can you imagine how rare it must be to see one in person?”

Her tone was thoughtful, not lecturing.

“Maybe wizards know they exist, but I doubt many have seen what they really look like. I hope when we learn about them in a future year, we can see a real one.”

Skylar focused on the book again and flipped another page, her eyes softening.

“As I read, it was not every creature that is dangerous,” She said with a steady voice. “My aunt always said that the ones people don’t talk about much — the quiet ones — are the ones that survive because they don’t need to fight.”

“This one’s also rare to be found. It is called the Demiguise. It says here it’s a peaceful, herbivorous beast that can turn invisible and even see the future.” Her tone softened slightly, almost reverent.

“It’s gentle and also shy, actually. It only disappears when it feels threatened. Not dangerous at all unless someone tries to capture it.”

Skylar closed the book halfway and leaned her arms on the table.

“Maybe that’s why I wanted to know more about them. I want to see something like my aunt experienced. Something that doesn’t need to be defended against, but also rare to find.”

Skylar nodded. She followed Aisling’s line of thought. “That’s really a good question,” She opened the book again and glanced back at the text. “Let’s see…”

Her finger traced along the line as she read. “It says here that Demiguises are classified as XXXX. It’s not because they’re dangerous, but because they’re extremely difficult to find and capture.”

She looked up at Aisling with a thoughtful eyes. “So, I guess it’s less about what they do and more about how tricky they are to study. If something can turn invisible and see what’s about to happen next… well, you’d have to be very lucky to even see one.”

Skylar smiled a little. “It’s kind of funny. The Ministry uses the same system rating deadly beasts and shy little creatures that just don’t want to be found.”

She flipped back to the Diricawl entry and added, “Oh! and here it says they’re native to Mauritius. That’s an island east of Africa.”

Her tone softened again. Skylar curiosity’ had shifted into something more wistful. “Makes me wonder how many other creatures are still out there, just… living quietly where no one can see them. ”

Skylar turned another page, her finger stopping halfway.
“Oh! wait… another XXXX one. Hippogriff.”

She tilted her head, eyes scanning the texts. “A proud creature. Not dangerous unless you insult them first, and...”

She was surprised.
“It can be tamed?”

Her voice lightened a bit. “I saw it once in the sky, and it looked like… a live free creature. I never knew it was classified as xxxx level.”

She looked thoughtful for a second. “Makes you think, doesn’t it? If it can be tamed, that means it’s not that really scary?”

Skylar’s eyes were bright and curious. She smile a little at how passionately her friend picked apart the Ministry’s system. It was actually quite refreshing to hear someone question, rather than accept unquestioningly what the book’s authors thought.

“You are right,” she said, looking down again at the open page. “Perhaps they just wanted everything to fit perfectly within their system”

When Aisling said hippogriffs, Skylar gave a small chuckle. “Yes. They’re proud creatures. My aunt told me they can feel the tiniest wave of disrespect like how you blink.” She half laughed, half awed in her tone. She pounded with a finger on the page. “Perhaps the Ministry have categorized ‘dangerous to wizards’ by how much damage it would do them rather than how dangerous a creature acts in reality.”

Her eyes wandered towards the window, and for an instant she was elsewhere. “My aunt said she saw a hippogriff once, back when she was still a student. She told me it was a breathtaking creatures, but also terrifying”

Skylar tilted her head, thinking for a moment before answering. “Uagadou’s in Uganda, right? So it’s on the mainland. It not exactly close to Mauritius, I think, at least not by broom or Floo Network standards.”

When Aisling mentioned the Forbidden Forest, Skylar’s voice became gentler. “I have only ever seen it from the stables up at the edge. Just birds and the horses, occasionally a Hippogriff in flight, never anything beyond that.” She paused for a moment. “Such a shame, but my aunt… she has certainly been in there. She’s describe stories about centaurs, and … something else.”

She smiled nervously with her lips. “I never did know if she was warning me or simply testing my curiosity. She always said the same thing ‘If you’re not ready to face what waits, do not find yourself in the woods.’ ”

Skylar turned around to face Aisling again and, her voice lowered to just above a murmur. “Still … part of me really wants to get there someday. Don’t you?”

Skylar tilted her head, thinking. “Well… there are still good reasons to call it the Forbidden Forest,” she said quietly. “There are dangerous creatures living in there like giants, werewolves, even acromantulas.”

Thinking about a huge spider made her realize something. Skylar lowered her voice, glancing toward the window as if she were going back to her memory.

“My aunt once said there are things in there that even she doesn’t fully understand. Some of them might not be evil, but the forest isn’t exactly… safe.”

Depressed eyes and a hopeless voice of her aunts she recognized from these words. Back then, Skylar hadn’t thought much of it. But now… she did. Amelia, her aunt, loved telling stories, yet she never said anything about living in the forest, only about what she saw in it.

Amelia had seen a lot, which meant she’d spent more than just a few hours in those woods. Maybe even years. Maybe there was something more to it. Could it be about her uncle being in Azkaban?

Skylar paused for a long time before she looked back at Aisling with a half-smile. “ Sorry, I just... I think... Nothing... That’s why it’s forbidden. Because there are still creatures that are monsters, and because not everyone would know how to communicate with them.”

She ran her fingers along the edge of the book with a bit excitement. “Maybe the creatures aren’t the only things that live there. Maybe the forest itself is alive.”

Skylar gave a small, embarrassed smile, though there was genuine emotion in her eyes more than bragging. “Sorry again, I’m rambling. Actually, I didn’t know anything much about the forest. My entire life was in the gardens, and this is just a story I heard, which I like to fantasize on. Too much sometimes he..he.”

She scratched her head and gazed straight at Aisling again. “If we ever did go,” she said in a low voice, “we’d have to promise to respect the creature we saw before using any spells. Should we?”