A Dementor's Kiss - Phan

Shadowbeasts

The winged horses were flying together in swooping circles right at the far edge of the forest. Moonlight glinted off their slick, emancipated hides. They were darker than the purple night. Dan watched as, without any obvious signal, they dipped back down under the shadow of the trees.

So the tattoo on Seb's back belonged to a real animal, a thestral as he'd called it. Dan had forgotten all about it. Seeing them in person, Dan understood a little better why Seb had called it his favourite. And he'd used thestral magic, somehow? Clearly, it allowed him to choose who the tattoo was visible to. He'd shown it to Dan. Or maybe it was a Slytherin thing? Dan couldn't think of anything else they had in common.

Still deep in thought, Dan sat back on his mattress, curled up and fell quickly back asleep. By the morning, he had forgotten the strange creatures of the night.

~

"It's true!" Chris cried, bursting into the Ravenclaw common room with glee pouring off every inch of his body. "Umbridge is gone, maybe for good. Well, she's still here in the hospital wing. But Arnie says she's completely lost it. Be carted off to St. Mungo's in no time."

"But what the hell happened?" PJ laid his book down in his lap, wonder in his eyes as Chris ran a victory lap of the airy room, high-fiving as he went.

"Arnie says she went in the forest for some reason. Probably decided it was time to put some order to whatever madness goes on in there. Very unorthodox practices, I'm sure. She came out a few hours later without a wand and screaming. His chess club were having a midnight tournament at the edge of the forest. They picked her up and took her to the hospital wing." Chris completed his circuit and slumped down blissfully in the spare armchair.

"What did she meet in the forest?" Dan wondered, his Potions revision forgotten.

"She was spouting gibberish all the way to the castle. Centaurs and giants and giant spiders and evil forest children and vines that ate people and Dumbledore, apparently."

"Dumbledore was in the forest?!"

"Nah, like he set it all up to get her or something. I don't know. She's crazy. I mean, in shock."

The whole common room was listening to their conversation. One girl had stopped so dead in taking a paperback from the bookshelf that it had fallen to the floor with an outraged th

ud.

"I heard it was fifth years, not Dumbledore." Phil sat forwards eagerly. "No one thought it was actually real, though. The rumour was that they persuaded her to go in - said there was some terrible misconduct going on, I guess."

"Bloody genius. Why didn't we think of that?" Chris nodded his head approvingly.

"Two of them took her in," a first year who'd been listening to their conversation piped up, blinking in surprise at her own voice. "I saw. I was... never mind." She carried on, a little braver. "But they took her in and came out without her about half an hour later. I guess they just got in deep enough and ran away."

PJ let out a low whistle. "That's some balls right there. If I find out who they are I will personally bake them at least four cakes. Did they get into trouble?"

The first year shrugged.

"If they've got detentions or anything we should crash them."

Chris nodded in agreement. "The whole school would probably come. Well, except the Inquisitorial Squibs."

"I guess that's disbanded now, huh." PJ said, a grin spreading across his face. He lay his head back on the top of the armchair, looking up at the blue and bronze silks that hung down from the star-painted ceiling. A true sense of serenity came over a person when in their own house.