PRONGSLET AND THE OLYMPIAN ALLIANCE

Chapter Thirty-Two

It was incredibly dark and he felt himself sliding down the rough sides of carved out terrain that Milo had created at some point. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what he was venturing inside, when he tripped and suddenly, was sliding further until he reached a small clearing.

"Oh, I should have warned you to watch your step back there," Milo informed him, " sorry!"

With a grumble, Cedric pushed himself up and began brushing his robes off, only to become stock still when he witnessed where he was standing. The last he remembered was Milo creating a burrow like the atmosphere in the trunk for the mooncalf, but this was no longer a burrow atmosphere. Milo had set up an entire workspace inside his trunk, equipped with some furniture from the Hufflepuff dorm and probably other places around the castle. 

There appeared to be a tunnel system that had taken over the burrow for the mooncalf, but the rest of Milo's workspace was lit up by a lantern.

"Mi-Mi-Milo, what is all of this?" Cedric stammered.

"Well, I figured you were right, Cedric, back at the clearing telling me that I eeded to focus on myself and my passions. So I went back to what I do best."

"Making me look like a terrible prefect?"

"Oh stop it, you're incredibly handsome, how could you look terrible?"

"Milo, that's not what I meant-"

"Anyways," Milo interjected cutting him off, " I knew I had to get back to my creatures. You were absolutely right and with the winter months, I had to make sure that since I couldn't bring them outside that I had the set up to keep them occupied while indoors."

Pulling his bag off his shoulder, Milo walked over to one of his tables and turned the bag upside down to empty the contents all over the place. Cedric remained in the same spot, contemplating where he had gone wrong as a prefect that the Hufflepuff dorm was becoming a hot spot for illegal activity and his boyfriend was the front-runner.

What appeared to be bulbs of some sort spilt out and run rolled off the table, seconds later, the mooncalf darted out one of the tunnel openings to grab it and then ran off with an echoing squeal. 

"She's absolutely mad about those things," Milo said before continuing his rummaging. 

"Milo, did you get all this from Forbidden Forest? Is this why you were caught?"

"Well, I obviously didn't get the furniture from the Forbidden Forest," Milo laughed to himself, "although, that would be a very interesting concept. I can imagine some creatures would be great with woodwork but-"

He caught sight of the flat expression on his boyfriend's face.

"Uh, right, the answer to your question is yes and no. I actually wanted to get caught, by my mother specifically. You see, I was hoping she would issue me a detention with her this evening, because I need to get a couple of books from her office."

"You know, Milo, when I said that I wanted you to focus on yourself, I meant going back to reading...you know, find out more information for perhaps your rambling or something along the lines. I didn't mean all of this...is this even legal?"

Milo glanced over at him as Paden was handing the boy a small leaf to add to some sort of collection. 

"It's illegal, isn't it?"

"Highly. But..." He reached into his pocket and kept his hand closed before walking over to where Cedric stood. "It's all worth it."

Resting inside his palm, Cedric witnessed a small fairy curled up, attempting to maintain the warmth from Milo's body heat.