Just the edge

[Celia Fredrick]

After about the 3rd hour of wandering aimlessly over the grounds trying to find her way to that perfectly cozy reading corner she discovered last term, Celia was all but ready to give up and return to the castle. If she could find it at this point that is. Sighing she flopped on the the ground next to a rather large tree on the edge of what she was hoping was a rather large clump of trees and not in fact the Forbidden Forest. She was not however holding out much hope.

With a sigh she stood up moving around the tree so the forest line was in her sight instead of in at her back. She was just lucky enough that some hungry creature would wander out, catch her unaware and eat her as a late afternoon snack. Sighing she absently began picking leaves from her skirt and hair that she had accumulated during her many falls today. She sincerely hoped and wished each year on her birthday that this would be the year she would stop being clumsy and would learn to stop babbling. Every year however it only seemed to get worse.

"Oh well" she said out loud to the hopefully empty forest and she shook her hair free of the last leaf and pulled a cheese sandwich and a book from her bag. She alternated between reading the book and watching the forest for Celia eating creatures while she nibbled daintily on the sandwich.

[Saul Alexander Talvos]

Saul had decided to take a walk, discover some more of what this place might actually have to offer. Though honestly he wasn't holding out much hope that he'd find anything particularly interesting. I mean what were a few craggy rocks, some grass and a lake compared to vast snowy covered mountain peaks? Pfft, nothing even close to as exciting.

But still he knew he wasn't getting a choice in any of this and so might as well make the best of a bad situation. That Forbidden Forest sounded mildly interesting. His mother had told him stories about it of course, by the sounds of things she'd ventured in there on more than one occasion. And sure it was 'forbidden' but that was obviously it's biggest appeal right?

Making his way up from the dungeons, his dark green cloak wrapped around his shoulders to keep out the September chill that would come soon enough, it was starting to get late in the afternoon and wouldn't be long before the darkness started creeping in. He'd better get a move on.

Breezing through the large wooden door of the castle Saul set off at a brisk pace across the grounds, making a bee-line for the dark clump of trees he could see hovering ominously in front of him. As he drew nearer he started to think a little more intently, where would he begin? Did he venture inside the forest or merely scout around the edges for now and brave the insides of it another day when he would perhaps have more daylight at his disposal. Hmmm it was a tough decision to make.

Just as he passed a rather thick clump of trees in search of a path that looked like it had potential, Saul spotted a girl sitting just on the outskirts of the forest. She seemed to be reading...must be a Ravenclaw, he thought with a roll of his eyes. A smirk painted on his lips he sauntered over towards the girl and said aloud.

"So what, not brave enough to actually go inside then?"

[Damion King]

Ugh, Hogwarts was so boring right now. All of Damion's friends were still back at home for the rest of summer, so the everything was empty and rather blah. This resulted in him taking way more trips around the grounds than necessary to the point that he noticed if someone had stepped on a particular weed or something, which was just not good at all.

Why his mum had decided to send him back early for once, he would never know. Damion was paranoid that it was because she had found out about him talking to his dad, but he couldn't be sure. She didn't seem mad, after all.

Sighing, he pulled a Chocolate Frog from his pocket. Upon opening it, he saw that he got Ron Weasley - which didn't excite him, seeing as he had about six of the guy. However, in that moment of distraction, the Chocolate Frog had leapt from his hand and had begun to hope away down the lawns toward the Forbidden Forest. "Dammit," he muttered to himself.

Now, his logic here was not admirable. Was he really going to eat the chocolate frog that had just basically covered itself in dirt during its attempt at escape? No, probably not, but was he going to chase it, anyway? Apparently. The tree line came into his sight as he neared the Chocolate Frog, he was so close, and then - it hippity hopped all the way into the Forbidden Forest.

After emitting a few choice swear words, Damion turned around to go explore the rest of the grounds when he saw that another human being was in the vicinity. TWO human beings... Awwwwkwaaaaaard. One of them was a girl, with her back against a tree and a book propped open. Ravenclaw, obviously. The other was a boy who seemed rather keen on entering the Forbidden Forest.

"Hi," he said, giving a tiny wave. "Nice day, isn't it?" Damion smiled a little too widely for someone who had just been doing something quite foolish, but meh. He tried to brush it off. "What are you cool kids up to?"

[Saul Alexander Talvos]

Before the girl even had a chance to reply to Saul's remark, a commotion kicked up from some way behind them, a little ways back from the trees which caused Saul to turn his head. He wasn't expecting to recognise the person it was, he'd only met that one other girl in Diagon Alley and this places wasn't exactly teaming with people yet. Why exactly had he decided to come here early again? Oh yeah, escape from his irritating half sisters that was it!

Saul looked around just in time to see a chocolate frog hop off into the thick cluster of trees and another boy swear as his sudden misfortune. But Saul frowned, if he'd caught it he wasn't actually about to eat it after it had hopped halfway across the lawns was he?

Attempting not to shudder in disgust Saul raised an eyebrow as the boy called over. He supposed it was a nice day, but that was probably the most over used introduction ever wasn't it? "Uh, yeah, great." Saul said with a shrug. He often struggled with where to go with these sort of conversations.

"I dunno about her," Saul gestured to the girl he had just spoken to, "But I was just off for a walk around, get to know the place and stuff. Ever been in there?" He pointed into the dark forest wondering if either of them would have any interesting stories about it.

[Celia Fredrick]

A noise startled Celia out of her book, her heart pounded as she was suddenly sure that it was in fact some sort of giant arachnid coming to eat her. Before she had took the time to process that the noise was coming from a rather small whiny toned boy the book was out of her hand and hurtling toward said child.

Jumping up then promptly tripping over her feet and landing back against the tree Celia started to sputter an apology...well a Celia style apology anyhow. "Well in 1679 12 students were dragged in the forest in one go and never heard from again and in the 1900's enough pieces were found of a herbology class that had been studying the forests plant life to put together one Frankenstein style monster and..." she stopped herself in time giving the boy an apologetic shrug "I am sorry I tossed the book at you, you startled me. And I would rather not go inside as I would rather not be eaten" she told the boy pushing her hair back from her eyes.

Happily, well for her anyhow as he seemed none to pleased with the state of the universe, another boy came hopping along, saving her from anymore awkward conversation with the other one. "Oh yes it is nice, of course this time of ..." Celia managed to stop her random fact spitting and drag herself back to her feet with out tripping again. "I am Celia Fredrick, Ravenclaw...and you two are?" she asked politely hoping if the pretended not to hear the bit about the forest she would not end up somehow goaded in to entering said place.

[Damion King]

Well, that kid was rude, that's for sure. Try to make polite small talk with a couple of little buggers he didn't know, and one of them thinks it's cool to be rude about it. Whatever.

"The Forbidden Forest? No, I've never been in there, because it's forbidden, you know, like the name says," said Damion coolly. "Think I want to spend some time in the detention hall?" Truth was, Damion wasn't as brave as he made himself out to be sometimes. He was actually a little scared to go into the Forbidden Forest. The professors at Hogwarts made it easy to be afraid, though, what with them telling the students all about the terrible creatures that lived inside there and all of the horrible things that had happened and everything. He didn't care enough about adventure enough to lose his life in the process, he didn't think.

Yup. Just like that. Damion stifled a shiver as the Ravenclaw girl rattled off numbers and dates and all that good stuff. Exactly why he never went in there. "Nice to meet you, Celia. I'm Damion, member of Slytherin House, which I promise... we're not all that bad." He winked at the girl, then turned to the boy, waiting for him to say his name. He was probably a Gryffindor, from way that he was going about things.

[Saul Alexander Talvos]

Saul managed to duck at just the right time to avoid the book hitting him square in the face. If he hadn't needed to duck he might have found it funny that he'd made the girl jump, as it was he was just glad he didn't end up with a black eye. He may not have been a vampire like his mother and had her cat like reflexes but it seemed he could still dodge a flying book with the best of them.

"Hey, watch it!" He said crossly, but the girl seemed surprised and also apologetic. Sure Saul was an arrogant little git, but he wasn't always mean...well not to everyone. "Well, that's ok I suppose. Just watch where you're throwing things next time." Truth be told he was a little baffled by her sudden spouting of facts and dates, this made him even less surprised when she annouced that she was indeed a Ravenclaw.

It also appeared that neither her nor the other boy had actually been inside the forest, so he was either going to have to take the other stories he'd heard as the truth...or venture in and find out for himself. Still he may have talked a big game but Saul wasn't exactly itching to go in there alone.

Instead he turned to the boy and shrugged, "Well, isn't that the point, it's forbidden so naturally EVERYBODY wants to go in there to find out why. I mean they tell you all these horror stories and that, but what exactly is in there? Does anybody know for sure? Could just be a load of old rot!"

The other boy had taken the time to introduce himself, he was a Slytherin? Really? Saul almost gaped in disbelief, that boy who had been chasing a chocolate frog was a Slytherin, had his mother been lying about it being the best house to be in?

Realising that he should probably introduce himself too he spoke. "Oh, right. Well my name is Saul and I'm a Slytherin too." Was that all they needed to know, he was not big on this whole getting to know other people thing yet.

[Damion King]

"Everybody who's daft wants to go in there," said Damion. When he was defending himself (even if he hadn't given anybody any reason to think poorly about him in the first place), he tended to get rather snippy. "Not to say you're daft or anything, mate, but that's the direction you're headed in." The Slytherin shrugged in a 'whaddaya gonna do' sort of way. A Nundu can't change its spots, after all. Wait...what if there was a Nundu in there?!? Oh, Merlin...

Wait. This Saul kid was in Slytherin? Talk about your fixer upper. Damion said, "Nice to meet you, Saul. Glad to see a fellow housemate who isn't totally involved with evil schemes and stuff." He smiled, though it didn't exactly reach his eyes, because he was still thinking about that freakin' scary Nundu. The mere idea gave him the shivers.

[Celia Fredrick]

"How perfectly lovely to meet you both, and both from Slytherin too" she said loudly after watching the too banter back and forth for a bit. One of them looked eager to prove himself and the other looked annoyed and perhaps slightly nervous. She didn't blame him she was made rather nervous by the looming forest before them.

"I didn't actually intend to get near the forest, I just got a little lost." her skin reddened as she admitted this, it was rather embarrassing for her to be getting lost at this point. "I am great at facts, not so much at directions, or staying upright" she said ruefully as she spotted another bit of bramble in her brown hair "Did you guys know that the head of Slytherin......" her fact ramble was cut short by a loud crash and a growling sound coming from the forest in front of them.

[Saul Alexander Talvos]

Saul shrugged. "I was just curious that's all really. I mean my mum said she'd been in there a few times when she was at school...but I suppose that might have been with classes and stuff I don't know wasn't really paying attention." He frowned, feeling rather less enthused about the idea now. I mean a part of him wanted to go in there but alone he wasn't so sure it would be a good idea. "Guess I was just wondering what exactly was so forbidden about it."

The other boy had mentioned something about a Nundu? "What's one of them?" Saul asked with a frown. He wasn't exactly well versed creatures, magical or otherwise and that wasn't one he'd ever heard of. Maybe Damion would have some interesting tale about it.

Saul was about to say something in reply to Celia when the low rumbling growl and crashing of foliage echoed out of the dark line of trees and completely drew his attention. "You both heard that too right?"