PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Chapter Forty-Four

"Paden, come out from there," Cedric called to the bowtruckle as he lowered himself onto his hands and knees to look under the bed. "Come on, I don't know why you're hiding from me."

After a few moments of passing silence, Paden crawled out, however, he was noticeable hiding something behind him. Unfortunately, for the bowtruckle, Paden was quite thin in appearance. His body resembled a twig-like appearance, so the leaf that he was attempting to hide from Cedric at the time, was a bit more than obvious. It was practically bigger than Paden, as it fanned out behind him. 

Cedric went to reach out for it, recognising the Mandrake leaf but as soon as his hand went for it, Paden bit his index finger.

"Ow!" The boy yelped out and pulled his hand back. Instantly, Paden dove back under the bed with the leaf to hide. What Cedric didn't understand was Paden was trying to defend the leaf under Milo's orders and no offence to the boy, but he wasn't going to listen to him over Milo. The only person he would listen to outside of Milo was Minerva and that was because he was afraid of her. But that was the majority of the people in the castle anyway. 

Reaching his hand under the bed, Cedric tried to make a grab for him, mainly because he knew how important the leaf was to Milo. After all, it was a huge step in the animagus process and Milo been hard at work with it. If Paden was planning on eating it then that would be quite the set back because it wasn't the easiest to get a hold of one in the castle. 

"Paden, you come out of there and you give me that leaf, right now!"

He was only met with a chirp of protest and another bite on the hand. "Ow! Stop that!"

There was the sound of a raspberry being blown at him from the darkness under the bed, leaving Cedric to make a face. "Paden Potter if you don't come out of there right now and hand that leaf over, I'll go get my wand! Don't make me go get my wand!"

As the silent reached him once more, Cedric thought he had won and he expected Paden to come crawling out. However, he was definitely wrong as he was met with yet, another bite on his finger.

"Ow! Stop biting me! You vicious twig!"

Paden was not about to let the offensive term go unpunished as seconds later, he launched himself from under the bed and attacked Cedric's face. All those in the common room, heard a scream come from the boy's dorm, but no one made the effort to move.

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"Where did you learn how to hunt?" Sirius asked as the two of them were entering a deeper part of the forest. Milo had his wand out to make sure that if they came upon anyone or anything that they wouldn't find themselves in trouble. His eyes were also trailing down towards the ground to check for any signs of animal tracks.

Milo peered over at the man before Sirius started laughing. "Oh, I can just imagine it now, did Minnie take her little kitten out hunting with her?"

The boy made a face, very tempted to shove Sirius down into a pile of snow but he restrained himself from doing so. "No," he answered, " it's really not that complicated once you understand how animals work. If you know how to track them, what startles them, and what their defence is against predators then hunting comes as second nature."

"But aren't you this big animal lover?" Sirius questioned. "That's what I've heard, especially having to witness you and Newt Scamander, screech like a bunch of little birds about the creatures in this forest."

Milo couldn't help let out a chuckle. "I am an animal lover, but we're animals too which means we have to survive by feeding. Right now, I can't risk going back and forth from the castle to the forest with food. That's bound to raise suspicion, so you need to learn how to hunt. I love animals but let's be real, animals eat other animals to live. It's a part of life, similar to how the bowtruckle eat the woodlice, something eats the bowtruckles, and something even bigger eats whatever ate the bowtruckle. It's the food chain, Sirius. I condone hunting as long as it serves a purpose and it is not used as a hobby to decorate walls."

"You sound like your mother," Sirius chuckled.

"Which one?" Milo countered bringing both to smile before they continued on. "Right now, we're just looking for some tracks of any sort of animal, but due to the cold, it's probably going to be sparse and the only thing we'll come upon right away are the hardier animals. Like the unicorns, but I say we avoid snacking on them."

Sirius allowed Milo to lead the way and finally, they came upon some tracks, leaving them on the trail of something. "It's more than likely a mountain hare," Milo told him, "that should be good enough to sustain you. Normally, I'm not very fond of hunting down any mountain hare-"

"And why is that?"

"They've been losing a lot of numbers due to culling," Milo informed the man with a frown, " the problem is they are the native hare to Scotland. So I hate to see them as being hunted. But it's just one, and after that, we'll figure out what else you can hunt, there are plenty of other animals, the problem is finding them in cold weather."

Fortunately, when they came upon the hare in the clearing, Milo was relieved as he noticed that it wasn't a mountain hare as he suspected but a brown hare. It seemed to be searching for food on its own when it shoulder have been tucked away in warmth. But it looked as though it was quite weak from hunger too, making it an easy kill. Milo turned to Sirius with a sigh, giving him the good to go to make the kill. He certainly wasn't going to watch as he kept his back turned hiding behind a dead log, while Sirius quietly morphed into his dog form. He crept out slowly to hunt down the little hare.

As Milo sat there, waiting for it to happen, he suddenly felt much colder, even though Sirius had returned his coat to him. It was cold out but it wasn't that cold out and the wind wasn't even blowing. The Forest offered some type of protection from the natural elements, leaving Milo confused until he heard a bark. Milo knew that Sirius couldn't be as foolish to bark and scare off the prey, but as he peered over the log. However, Milo's heart was nearly caught in his throat as he witnessed a sole dementor making its way through the forest in pursuit of Sirius.

"Fu-" The boy scrambled up to his feet, wand in hand, as he went to help Sirius before the dementor got to him. If he was caught, he was completely screwed before they could even prove his innocence. Milo appeared faster on foot more than he believed, but he was being fueled by pure adrenaline in that moment. It actually didn't take him long to catch up with Sirius as the dog was cowering back, unable to climb up the rock wall that the dementor had cornered him in. 

Without hesitation, Milo ran over and placed himself in front of Sirius, placing himself in the middle. Sirius tried to get the boy to be sensible about it, pulling at Milo's coat to get him to leave, it wouldn't be worth it if he got hurt. But Milo's feet were firmly planted in place and he had his wand pointed directly at the dementor. However, the terrible feeling that washed over him as the dementor grew closer caused Milo to suddenly feel quite weak. His arm could barely hold up his wand as if it weighed a ton. The boy was trying to focus but he felt so cold and he didn't know what to do, he was becoming quite the feeding source for the dementor as the boy held so much happiness inside of him. 

It rendered the boy down to his knees and Sirius wasn't in a better condition as he was already on the ground, collapsed from the effects of the dementor. However, Milo managed to lift his wand once more, although it wasn't of much use if he couldn't even mutter out an incantation.Yet, it wasn't needed in that moment as Milo was blinded by a bright golden light for a moment, leaving him to look away as he shielded his face. But as he turned back, he saw that the Ceryneian Hind had assumed the position between him and the Dementor. 

He had to wonder if Sirius was witnessing it all at the moment but the man was out of dog form and down for the time being. Milo was just about to call something out when the Ceryneian Hind charged straight towards the dementor. 

A/N: For those of you who didn't hear the annoucement, there is a Pottery original book that I published, that will follow Cedric and Milo, if you wish to check it out.