Son Of Riddle

Chapter twenty-two - The centaurs; part two

James raced back to the great hall, note in hand, much to the quartet's confusion.
"Is that the-" Adam started to ask.
"The note that I found in the chamber of secrets two months ago? Yes." James finished his sentance for him.
"But why bring it up now?" Lucy asked.
"I think the centaurs sent it to me." James said. He gave the note to them so they could read it again.
"That first sentance is exactly what Marceos said to me right before I left." He explained.
"I don't know mate." Adam said. "You might be reading into this too much. The centaurs seemed nice enough, aside from sending you out. And you are the son of the dark lord, so it makes sense they would be nervous around you."
"But openly accusing me of using dark magic, just like the note?" James asked, clearly not convinced. "It doesn't make sense."
"Adam's right, you are the son of this Voldemort guy." Benjamin said. "If he was as bad as you guys say, it is only natural they would accuse you of following in his footsteps. I'm sure a lot of people would think you're using dark magic."
"But saying they 'know', not think, like they have evidence or something." James argued. "It's gotta be them."
"He does make a valid point." Adam agreed.
Benjamin nodded. He wanted to continue his argument, the centaurs were cool, he didn't want to throw them under the bus. He looked to Lucy. "Lucy, you've been quiet this whole time, what do you think?"
Lucy's eyes were wide, like she was scared. "I'm not as smart as you guys, I'm basically lost." She said sheepishly. "But...For the centaurs to use the exact same wording as the note seems pretty unlikely..." She trailed off, her point being made.
"Ok ok we'll investigate the centaurs." Benjamin said, he just hoped they were wrong.

That night, they all snuck out of their respective dormitories, and all met up at the chamber of secrets, using the secret passgeways James had shown them. When they were all in the Chamber, Lucy immediately went to find charlotte, and they knew when she did, because she returned with a giant spider on her head.
"How the heck can you do that?" Adam asked. He turned to the rest of the quartet. "How is it every time she finds an animal, it ends up on her head?"
"I don't know." Lucy laughed. "They just like it up there I guess."
"Lucy, I hate to tell you this, but you'll have to leave Charlotte here when we go into the forest. Acromantulas live there, and I don't know how she'll react to being around other acromantulas." James told her.
"Aw, man." Lucy dejectedly took Charlotte down from her head, and set her on the floor.
"So, do we have a plan, or are we just going to go in there and be like, 'Hey, stop being jerks, ok bye'?" Adam asked.
"Well, if the centaurs are the ones who wrote that note, they wont have any reason to hurt us, right?" James explined. "So, if I'm wrong, we can just go there, ask why they think I'm using dark magic, they'll tell us, we can write the whole thing off as a misunderstanding, and we'll be done."
"And if you're right?" Lucy asked, concerned.
"...If I'm right they'll probably try to kill, trap, or stop me in some way or another." He said. "-But there's no other way to affectively ask them why while still keeping my presence a secret, so we'll just have to hope Jamie is right."
"But if you're right, then we're waltzing into enemy territory without a plan."
"I was trained by the dark lord remember?" James said, trying to keep his voice level. He was confident in his abilities, but the idea of his friends being so close to danger, and possibly death if he knew the centaurs, scared him beyond all rational reasoning. "We'll be fine."
The quartet didn't look convinced, but they stayed by his side as they snuck out of the chamber of secrets out to the forbidden forest.
As they neared the centaurs' village, James could feel his friends' nervousness. He felt guilty for leading them into what could be a trap, or worse, but they knew the risks, they could have backed out at any time, but they didn't and James was grateful to them for that. They reached the clearing, and peered out to the centaur's village.
"Now what?" Lucy asked.
"You all stay here, I'll go find Marceos." James said.
Adam pulled him back down the ground. "What was the point of us coming if we're just gonna stay here?" He whispered, annoyed.
James stayed silent, trying to come up with an excuse. He hated him for it, but Adam was right.
"We're coming with ya, bud." Benjamin said.
James hesitantly gestured for them to follow him. They walked out from behind the bushes and into the centaur village like they were just strolling through Hogsmeade.
They were almost immdediately ambushed by angry centaurs, surrounding them, weilding sharp spears.
"You think you can just come here like it's nothing, Son of Voldemort? We know what you're up to." Marceos walked up to them.
"What is it you think I'm up to?" James demanded. "I haven't done anything!"
"Do not lie to me, child." He said, coming too close to James for comfort. "I can sense dark magic. It was most prominent was when you suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Now the scent of is hasn't gone away, it's stayed. The balance is tipped, boy, and you know why. And you have the nerve to come here, of all places. You've made some mistakes, but this one, son of the serpent, this one was your worst."
James was fuming, shaking with fury. It took all the willpower he had not to curse him, and everyone here. He probably would have, had his friends not been there.
Marceos turned to the rest of the quartet. "Who are these, your followers? I should have guessed from earlier, they all reek of...inhumanity."
The chaos quartet looked at each other, holding back laughter, despite the situation.
"Throw them all in the cage, we'll give them to the wolves tomorrow morning." He said.
"No no wait, wait!" James screamed as the centaurs prodded them forwards. "They aren't my followers, they didn't even want to come with, I made them. I made them come with me."
"James, you didn't-" Lucy started to say
"I made them come." James repeated, giving Lucy a dark look.
Marceos studied them, like he wasn't sure what to do with them. "...I'll let two of your friends go. They probably won't make it back through the forest anyway. But you'll have to choose who goes and who stays."
"Thank you." James said gratefully, even though that didn't seem much better.
He turned to his friends as Marceos walked away. "I'm sorry." He said.
"It's alright." Adam said. "We were the ones who made you take us with in the first place."
"So now...we just have to decide which of us goes stays with James." Benjamin said gravely.
"I'll stay with him." Lucy said immediately. Any other day, Adam would have cracked a joke, but he figured this wasn't the time.
Benjamin opened his mouth to speak, but Lucy cut him off. "And if either of you make that cliche where you tell me I can't stay for some reason or another, and you should be the one to stay, I swear you will wake up with fuzzballs in your mouth for the rest of the year."
Benjamin stepped back, a tad flabberghasted.
"Okay, but my question is why?" Adam asked.
"Simple. Adam, you're the smartest of us, you could help formulate a plan to rescue us in the middle of the night, or tomorrow morning, before the wolves eat us. Jamie, you know this forest even better than me, you could help Adam get around, and help find the best ways for him to carry out his plan. I can speak wolf, as a full moon is nearing." She pointed to the little points of her wolf ears barely sticking out from underneath her frizzy hair. "He said he's feeding us to to wolves, right? If your guys' plan fails, I can probably negotiate with the wolves and convince them not to eat us. Or at least stall them long enough for James to help us escape. I assume they'll be watching us until they try to feed us to the wolves, so we can't escape by ourselves, at least not until you guys come."
The rest of the quartet looked at her, a bit stunned.
"Did you...come up with all that just now?" James asked. It was a surprisingly well thought out plan, especially for Lucy.
"...Is that so hard to believe?" Lucy asked, her moment of confidence gone.
"Yes." The rest of the quartet answered in unison, leaving Lucy red.
"Time for goodbyes is past!" Marceos yelled at them, coming back over to see what was taking them so long.
Two of the centaurs took Adam and Benjamin by their shoulders and steered them away from James and Lucy.
"Don't forget!" Lucy yelled over her shoulder as they were prodded into a large wooden cage. It was actually more of a box made out of planks of wood than a cage, but it didn't matter. They were still stuck, and dead as doornails.
The centaurs prodded them inside and closed and locked the door.
James heard Marceos ordering four centaurs to guard them, so it looked like any and all chances of escaping without help were crushed.
He waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the box, and walked over to where Lucy was sitting on the floor.
"That was surprising." He told her as he sat down next to her. "That whole-"
"I meant it y'know." She said, her eyes on the ground.
"...meant what?" James asked, confused.
"When I told you I liked you." She said. He couldn't see her face that well, but he was pretty sure it was red.
"I...I know." James said. "I did too."
Lucy smiled. "That's a relief. I was beginning to think you only said you did to make me feel less awkward."
"I almost wish I did...having a crush is hard." James admitted.
Lucy burst into a fit of bubbly laugher. Even in a situation where they might die, the smallest things still made her laugh. "You have a point there." She said. "But...having a crush can also be nice. A crush can turn into love, and loving someone's even better." She said. "It's like...having a best friend, but more than that at the same time. Someone you don't have to hide anything from, someone who you know you can trust no matter what."
"That does sound nice." James agreed.
"But I think before you love someone, you have to be in a relationship first." Lucy said, her face perplexed. "I think that's how it goes anyway."
"Do you want to do that?" James asked her. He had never been in a relationship before...in fact, the closest he had come to being around anything like that were the death eaters who were married, but even then he didn't quite understand."
Lucy smiled and nodded. "I would like that very much." She said.
They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments.
"I can't believe my first relationship started in a box, about to be eaten by wolves." Lucy yawned.
James laughed. "If you're tired, you can sleep now if you want. I'm sure you'll wake up if Adam's plan works."
"Are you sure? Lucy asked. What if I fall asleep and you get lonely?"
James laughed. Even as she was worrying about not dying, she was still worried about him not being lonely. "I think I'll be ok." He told her.
"Okk.." She said. She laid down with her head in his lap and quickly fell asleep.
James quickly followed suit, still thinking of possoble ways to get them out.