[OPEN] A Leafy Rescue Mission

Maddie, er, Professor McKillon let him go into the greenhouses after hours to take care of the few plants he had brought with him to school, but he really couldn't help himself and often continued his pruning and watering with the other plants. He missed his greenhouse at home, and the dangerous garden that typically guaranteed some sort of injury. He was liking Hogwarts, and he had made some friends, but he spent a lot of time feeling pretty inadequate. The task of taking care of the greenhouse plants kept him sane.

There were two flowers that were beginning to worry him. Over the past few weeks, the flower itself had regressed, retreating back into the bulb. Now the pair were drooping so heavily that Goose was convinced they would crumble and die within a day or two.

He wished Charlie were around, but he had been rewriting an essay and could not be tempted away. Goose suspected Maddie would know best but he really didn't want to worry her either. Surely, there could be something he could do. The flowers had been fine just last month during the full moon...

Goose lifted his head as his face was bathed in moonlight. Oh. Really.

And that was how he found himself walked across the grounds, a potted plant in each arm, glancing around. He wasn't supposed to be out, and was definitely going to get caught unless he found cover. But... what other option did he have.

His eyes fell on the forest and he stopped, letting out a deep sigh. Was he really going to do this? Oh, god, he was.

*

Nicole wasn't what you might call a Rule Breaker. Not at home, certainly, but typically not at Hogwarts, either. But this was no ordinary night, and these were not ordinary circumstances. She had been all but kicked out of the library once curfew was announced and the room of knowledge was shut down, and had just decided to glance out a window as she made her way down a staircase. Much to her surprise, a small figure was making its way across the grounds. She couldn't tell what they were carrying, what year they were or even if it was someone she should have known.

But the semester had been boring, her friendships even worse, and she was feeling a bit rebellious.

Whoever it was, they were heading towards the forest, and Nicole had always secretly wanted to go there. At least a little ways in, that is. There was little doubt within her that she would balk at the first frightening noise and try to double back, but Merlin, she was curious. And whoever they were, she imagined that they could either use a bit of backup, or would let her tag along for fear of being caught.

So she bounded down the stairs and snuck outside, darting across the grass to approach them.

"Hey!" She whisper-yelled, pulling her Hufflepuff cloak more tightly around her as she neared him. She didn't really recognize him, which led her to believe that he wasn't in her year, but instead a first or third. But he looked a bit young, really, so she decided to bet on the first year idea. "Where are you going?"

A voice made him stop in his tracks, staring forward as though he could will the intruder's existence away if he simply didn't acknowledge it. Or perhaps he would camouflage with the landscape by sheer force of mind, and they would amble off. If anything, it would give them a chance to make their purpose known, especially if they were of the mind of turning him in.

But they weren't leaving, and he could hardly levitate a feather, let alone turn invisible on command or banish away entire beings. He hefted the plants in his hands, both slipping and slowly turned, pulling a bored expression on his face to mask the thundering of his heart and the sweating of his palms. After years of pretending to find his sister's antics unamusing, he had to say he was a pretty good actor.

The girl was a Hufflepuff, he noted by the robes, and instinct told him she was a second year. He wasn't sure if the second deduction was because of a subtle observation he couldn't quite pinpoint, or if it was a fact he had noted earlier in the year and forgotten about. She didn't seem like the type to tell, but she also didn't seem like the type of be outside after curfew. So he had to proceed very carefully.

He shrugged. "Nowhere."

Perfect cover, Goose, just astounding.

Nicole stopped when the boy did, tilting her head as she eyed him a bit more warily. Who did he think she was, to be so nervous? But he did turn around to look her over in return, so perhaps that was a start. As if she would ever just go tell on someone. Yeah, right. Her mum had been enough trouble that she couldn't imagine what a professor would say.

"What, you think it isn't weird that you're going off towards the forest by yourself? In case you didn't realize it, me telling on you would get me in trouble as well. So that's not going to happen."

Her eyes drifted a little, taking in the plants that she only now really bothered to focus on. "You're not stealing those from the greenhouse are you? Much good they're gonna do you in the forest."

"Have you never been in the forest?"

Darcy came up behind the two students conversing on the lawn, as if this meeting in the middle of the night was a completely ordinary occurrence.

To be fair, Darcy thought this meeting was completely ordinary. In books, people were always sneaking around at night. You'd think they were nocturnal. That was part of the reason she was out here right now.

Darcy had crossed the threshold into her new world, but she still wasn't clear on what this adventure was supposed to be all about. The obvious course of action was to sneak out and go into the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night. That's what any self respecting heroine would have done.

But it looked like she'd have to deal with this side quest first. Maybe she was supposed to make friends with these two.

He didn't like being stopped.

He didn't like being treated like he was an idiot.

And he really didn't like being treated like he didn't know what to do with his plants.

He didn't know who this girl thought she was, with all her assumptions, but he didn't like it. But he knew better to assume, even if she didn't.

But there was a touch of logic to her words, but he still felt uncertain. She might have no intentions to tell, but two people were more conspicuous than one, and the last thing he wanted was to reveal himself as some sort of rule breaker and attract the scrutiny of his professors. Professor McKillon could hardly keep up with all plants on her own, and he didn't need to be grounded to the castle.

But something in her tone reminded him of the sass Sunny's best friend often gave him, and even though he was used to letting such insults roll off his back, they had never been directed at his intelligence.

"For your information-"

But another voice caught him by surprise, and again he was spinning around. He knew this face, Driscoll, a fellow first year. His frown deepened. Two was bad, but three was downright obvious.

"Okay, look, I've gotta take these to the forest. I can't stop either of you from following, but please don't attract any attention."

He turned and headed off, hoping the urgency in his step would dissuade them from following.

Nicole stood up a bit straighter at his tone, but it hardly mattered because they were cut off by another student arriving. This time, both she and this boy were surprised, and the Hufflepuff spun around, eyebrows raised. Perhaps, if her own questions had not been so drenched with curiosity and a bit of superiority, she would have been offended by the question. As it were, Nicole had been thinking somewhere along the same lines.

She thought about just turning around at his chiding, but he had not answered her question. Had he stolen them? If so, her conscience told her she could not ignore it, and could not hide the fact later if something happened and his actions became a problem. Better, she decided naively, to follow and find out what she could in case the time came.

Glancing towards the other girl, Nicole turned without question and started following the boy. Actually, she did have a question.

"If I'm meant to wander the forest with you two, I'd at least like to know your names. If nothing else we'll know what to call each other if we don't all make it out. I've heard stories, of course," she mused aloud. "I'm Nicole. A second year. But I haven't been in the forest myself," she added, finally answering the newcomer's question from before.

Darcy simply nodded when Goose (whose name she remembered from classes because anybody called Goose was probably important) said he was going into the forest. Of course he was.

"Of course we'll make it out," Darcy rolled her eyes at the other girl's melodrama. "At least, Goose and I will."

She squinted at Nicole. She seemed very ordinary and hadn't even been in the forest before, and most importantly she knew stories. People who knew information were often minor characters and everyone knew how easily minor characters could die. Darcy decided to mine her brain before it was too late.

"Sorry, I'm Darcy," she belatedly introduced herself. "Did you say there were stories about the forest?"

He wasn't so lucky. He could hear the two girls fall in behind him and a sense of exasperation filled him. Would he always have the shadows of a talkative female following him?  The elder girl introduced herself, and Goose grumbled his own name, stating his first name and year in a tone that betrayed some of his less-than-positive feelings towards their situation, keeping a firm grip on his potted plants.

Darcy's question was obviously meant for the Hufflepuff, but Goose wasn't thrilled with the of telling stories when they were somewhere they weren't supposed to be. If Baker were outside for any reason at all, their voices would carry and get caught up by him, and then they'd all be in a mess.

"Those stories are usually started by the professors to keep people from going in," he said, a frown tugging at his lips. "I mean, doesn't mean they're not true, but..." He heaved a shrug.

"It was a joke," Nicole said with a bit of a pout, her footsteps slowing as she looked towards Darcy. But it seemed they moved on easily enough, so she decided not to let it bother her. For now.

"Of course," she replied regarding the stories. "Haven't you? Centaurs and monsters and things."

Goose made a fair point, his odd name aside, and seemed rather uninterested in hearing about the ones she'd read or heard. It wasn't going very well at all, was it, this trying to get involved thing? This, her mother would've said, was why Nicole hadn't many friends. But the Hufflepuff did, somewhere in the back of her mind, know better.

"Once we figure out what's going on," she assured Darcy, "I'll tell you however many you'd like. But I, for one, am still curious about the plants. What exactly is the plan, here?"