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Heidi and Max could definitely tell that things were different between Cedric and Milo when they had returned from their classes, mainly because both boys were in the company of each other, wearing smiles and looking happier than ever. Heidi decided that if they had something to tell her and Max that she could wait until they said something, but for the time being, the girls were just thrilled to see that the boys were in a good mood. Milo was sitting on the floor, near Cedric's feet as the other boy was sitting on the sofa, listening to Milo discussing Jarveys and his idea of how to train one. Cedric wore a pleasant smile on his face and Max swore she had seen the boy petting Milo's hair as they walked in, but his hands were currently settled in his lap.
They greeted the two and Cedric and Milo greeted the two casually in return as if nothing was up. Without saying anything, Heidi and Max exchanged knowing glances and told the boys that they would be up in the girls' dorm until dinner time. It left the two alone again but with other students coming in and out of the common room, the affectionate touching was over between the two. Milo perfectly understood why.
It was enough in that moment that Cedric had confessed to his parents, the next big announcement to their peers could certainly wait. Gradually, Milo was sure they could figure it out on their own, but for the time being, both boys were relieved that one of the biggest bumps had been conquered. Milo had informed his mother and Cedric had informed his parents and while the reactions were vastly different between their guardians, both boys were thrilled to just say that they had actually done it. No matter what the reactions were, they no longer felt like they were lying to themselves.
Now that Cedric was back in Milo's good graces, there was plenty that he had to catch up on as he had missed on out on plenty since the two boys had pretty much stopped talking since the summer. Milo felt as though it was the right time to confide in Cedric about his animagus training that he had been working on. He didn't mention Fred, Lee, or George working on it with him. Just in case, he planned on protecting his friend's name should he ever get caught. At first, Cedric didn't seem to be the biggest fan of the idea, recalling the day that Milo collapsed on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, it certainly made sense why the boy was risking heading out during that time. He had just passed it up as Milo trying to catch a glimpse of the unicorn herd or something.
But when Milo gave him his reasoning as to why he wanted to do it, as it would help his career further, Cedric couldn't bring himself to argue.
"Your mother is going to kill you if she finds out you're doing this, you know that, right?" Cedric questioned as Paden was crawling through his hair.
No one was happier than Paden to have the two reunited. He had been counting down the time where the two would just need to fall on each other once more. Cedric had given his reason as to why he was upset but when he questioned Milo, the boy didn't say anything pertaining to the boggart lesson. He just informed Cedric had he had a rough day.
"I know," Milo said as he looked over the Marauder's Map, "but that's why she isn't going to find out."
He turned to Cedric, who was still seated on the sofa. "If my dad and his friends could do it, I can do it. I know I can and if my mum finds out, well, I've been known to be a fast runner."
"Can you outrun her wand?" Cedric countered with a smirk.
"I haven't tried it out yet, but if I am given the opportunity, I'll let you know."
"Well, good luck with that, Handsome," Cedric said bringing Milo to feel warm all over as his nickname returned. "Just try not to get in too much trouble with it all. Just from what you told me about the process, I can't imagine how people actually get through the process on their own."
"Very carefully," Milo told him with a chuckle. It was risky telling a prefect about illegal activities especially taken place within the castle walls, but Cedric knew that when it came to either Potter boy that there was bound to be something bizarre going on in their lives. Considering Milo had good intentions behind all his little mishaps of mischief, Cedric could never bring himself to get Milo in trouble unless the boy was putting himself in danger.
Milo always seemed to have a strong hand of himself, so Cedric just made sure to keep a close eye on him but allow the boy to continue on with his work. He didn't know the side effects or how the animagi training could potentially backfire but Milo was a dragon-holding, river troll-speaking, and Hippogriff-hugging boy, he was normally grinning in the face of danger.
Although to Cedric, Milo was always going to be his little kitten who still needed protecting.
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When Cedric told him that he was off to the showers before dinner, Milo wrapped up the map and decided to make one more attempt to the black tulips in hopes that he would be able to find them on his own. "You know," he pondered to himself and to Paden as the two left the Hufflepuff Common Room with the map, " it wouldn't be such a bad idea to come up with a map of the Forbidden Forest."
Paden chirped, sounding like he was questioning Milo's sanity in that moment.
"Now hear me out, Paden, before you go judging me," Milo laughed, "but if Dad and the others were able to get the entire castle, what stops us from doing the same to the Forest. It has to be a charm of some sort because it gets everyone who walks into the castle and some of the surrounding grounds. Except for Silas and Elspeth for some reason, I have to figure that out soon enough. But if we can place that charm on the Forbidden Forest, think about it, we can track the movement of the unicorn herd...know where to avoid the centaurs...it would be brilliant!"
He was getting far too excited as he shrieked in the corridor, but as the high pitch screech sounded, he flinched. "Oops."
As Milo thought his idea over, he thought about taking a small detour to Remus' office to ask the man about it, while also apologising for running out of the class earlier. But as he arrived at Remus' office, he heard Remus talking to someone, bringing Milo to hesitate to enter. He raised his hand to knock on the half-opened the door when he heard Remus laugh and the other person. A woman was laughing, bringing Milo to tilt his head as he recognised it not to be Elspeth's.
Peeking in slightly, Milo caught sight of Remus sitting at his desk but next to him, Milo recognised the woman in his company. "That's Professor Kellan," Milo whispered to Paden as if the bowtruckle was questioning who the mystery woman was. "She's the Alchemy professor, I wonder what they're-"
His voice was drowned out by the adults laughing again, it was actually really nice to see his godfather laughing and smiling as he was.
"Paden, do you know how lucky we are to witness this?" Milo continued to whisper. Paden glanced down at the boy, wondering how it was good fortune. "Think about it, we're the first to witness a werewolf flirting."
Paden let out a chirp that was the vocal equivalent to a facepalm. But it appeared as though Milo would wait to bother his godfather at another time as he smiled to himself and turned away from the door to continue on his way.
The boy and his bowtruckle made their way outside with no further interruptions or detours as Milo kept the map close to him. He made sure to look around for double measure before entering the forest and then placing the map inside his robes as it would no longer be of use inside of the forest. He was just praying that he didn't get lost without Newt's assistance. But if he managed it on his own then he would have no problem finding it again on his own after that.
Paden let out a few chirps that alerted a couple of other bowtruckles that were resting in some other trees as they passed.
"It's alright, Paden," Milo reassured his little friend, "we'll be fine. I've got my wand on me."
Pulling out his wand to show to the bowtruckle for reassurance, Milo called out the incantation "Lumos" to light up the tip. Paden climbed down from the boy's hair as they ventured further and further into the forest, and wrapped himself around Milo's hand tightly. Milo didn't appear nervous at all, he just seemed incredibly concentrated on following the same path that Newt had brought him on. Although he swore he was supposed to learn left at one tree but all the trees looked the same.
At one point, a twig snapped behind them causing Paden to let out a series of panicked chirps until Milo used his finger to cover the bowtruckle's mouth. "Paden, calm down, relax! Don't make a scene. There are other creatures out here, you know this."
He turned around to look behind them but there was nothing visible even with the light of his wand. He wouldn't say anything but his heart was pounding in his chest at the idea of running into the centaurs again as he knew that students weren't very welcomed around their territory.The last thing Milo needed was getting into another confrontation with them because it probably wouldn't go over so well. The centaurs were actually the ones that needed to watch out because after seeing the false image of his brother dead in his arms because of the boggart, Milo was going to fight any idea of Harry even getting hurt.
Another sound of a twig snapping sounded off to the side, bringing Milo to become perfectly still again. He kept his ears pricked for all the noises in the forest although where they were standing in the dark, it was silent. But everyone so often, he and Paden could hear a sound of something crunching under a foot. Seeing as the noise sounded from different locations each time, Milo came to one conclusion.
He and Paden were being circled.
Milo placed Paden in the pocket of his robes carefully, just in case they had to act fast, he didn't want him to get hurt. There was another sound that he picked up from right behind him, but Milo didn't dare turn around, he kept face forward. There was the sound of scuffling against the ground and just as the noise stopped, Milo ducked down to the ground quickly.
There was a crashing sound that occurred right in front of Milo as whatever had tried to tackle him before, landed on the ground without grace.
Quickly, the boy pushed himself and held out his wand, fully prepared to call out a spell in defence, but he froze when he came to find a large black dog in front of him. The dog shakily pushed itself onto all fours, looking quite weak, but that wasn't Milo's concern right away, especially as he recognised the dog right away from the memory that his father had shared with him. He stood there as the dog finally faced him and for awhile, Milo had no idea what to say in that moment before the first thought blurted out from his mouth.
"You look terrible, Padfoot."