Dawn Tells Dusk

[Alondra Redson]

Her eyes were just now adjusting to the dark. The moon was shining bright outside of the forest and now it was pitch black. It was hard to believe that it was 5 in the morning, and it was also hard to believe she had stayed up the entire night. She had to come to the forest it seemed. Though most people called it dangerous she felt as if it was her safe haven. It was the safest place she could be, and it was also the most solemn and the most placid of all.

The fog began to finally rest on the ground after hours of building up in the wet air. A few branches snagged at her clothing like fingers extending out to catch her and stop her from advancing into a place she was not aloud to go. By time she reached an open spot her hair was askew across her face and the side of her shirt was ripped.

Alondra sighed, plopping down onto the ground. She rested back on the tree and looked around the dark room of the forest floor. It wasn't as if a teacher would be there. None of them ventured too far in and none of them really expected any of the students to. They told them enough to stories to think that they would stay out of the place.

She never obeyed though. She often came out here and lately it had been in the depths of the night and early in the morning. It was a miracle no one had seen her come out there yet.

[Mikkel Delling]

Fresh out of university, Mikkel found it odd to be called Professor, sit at a table where his fellow diners were several years his senior, and have people just a few years younger than him fall silent whenever he walked by. Though he was never one for wild rumours and scandalous gossip, this social barrier left Mikkel quite forlorn at times, which is why he is most thankful for his Animagi professor, Herr Schindler.

Due to countless hours of hard work and persistent practice, transforming into his osprey form was now second nature. This he put to good use when he could no longer suffer the loneliness in silence, and desperately needed the company of someone ¡K something.

Back home, the sea was his happy hunting ground, and flying over its seemingly infinite surface always put a smile on his face. As Hogwarts¡¦s isolated location could not accommodate that, the Forbidden Forest was an ideal substitute. His visits were becoming increasingly common, so the birds no longer squawked when he appeared. At times Mikkel thought there was a student down on the ground, but did not think he was in any position to confront him or her. But tonight was the third time, and he knew it would remain on his conscience until his dying day if anything happened to the child, so he decided he would trail him or her for a while just to see what he or she was getting up to ¡K

[Alondra Redson]

Alondra sat up slightly, hearing a bit of rustling, but she just eased back up when it was over. She wasn't usually uneasy in the forest but she had a feeling someone was following her. Every since she entered the forest it felt like someone had been watching her, but until then she had pushed it away.

She pulled out her wand and silently thought a spell. Something a friend had taught her a while ago. It sent a wave of air from the tip of the wand then after it filtered through the space around her an image began to appear in front of her. It was as if whoever it was, was right before her and then in an instant it faded away. Someone was there.

Standing up, she carefully head towards the direction her wand led her. A few times she almost tripped and once she was hit in the face with a branch. But finally she came upon someone else or something else.

[Mikkel Delling]

Initially, it was duty that led Mikkel to begin tracing this tall girl, but as time passed, his curiosity was the driving force behind his silent wings. As he was no auror, Mikkel did not take any steps to draw up some educated theories for the girl¡¦s presence in the forest at this time of day. He did not even analyze her with superficialities being his evidential basis. This is why he was surprised to find her capable of this fairly uncommon locating charm.

When she stumbled her way to his midst, Mikkel knew he only had two choices: to reveal himself, or to continue his secrecy. The flaxen osprey chose the latter.

About two paces from the girl, Mikkel appeared in his human form, dressed in simple night attire than consisted of a satin shirt and matching trousers. Bare-footed, he savoured the uneven undergrowth underfoot, and flinched not as something slithered aside.

"I guess my feet do smell,¡¨ he thought.

[Alondra Redson]

She sighed and saw the man standing before her. It was a professor it seemed and now she would get into trouble and not be able to get out here to the forest anymore.

"I'm sorry...I'm leaving..." She said assuming he'd make her anyway. She turned on her heel and started walking through the thick forest, squeezing between trees, ducking under branches.

[Mikkel Delling]

Her reaction was the last he had expected, but Mikkel knew he had been naive to think the girl's attitude towards him would be any different from all the students he had encoutnered so far. It deeply frustrated him that there should be this invisible wall that made teachers separate from students. At times he wanted to scream and remind everyone that he was in their shoes just five, six yearsd ago.

Today he made the choice to have things differently, so followed with long, loping strides that caught up with her witin seconds.

"Hey," he called, when he came within an arm's reach of the girls. "You don't have to go."

[Alondra Redson]

"What...?" She looked at him utterly confused and stopped walking for just a moment. "Why exactly may I ask do I not have to go? Do you perfer I stay here and you go back and tell on me?" She smiled though to make it seem like she was joking though she was dead serious with her sarcastic words.

She looked him over seeing he was in pajamas it seemed. He was an odd one at that. She had not seen a professor like this before she didn't want to see a professor like this again. It was just creepy.

"I'm thoroughly confused."

[Mikkel Delling]

Either her mother tongue was not English, or she was fairly stunned, for it took Mikkel a moment to decipher what she meant. (A third reason could be the fact that his first language was Norwegian.) Smiling to show his appreciation for her joke and his harmless intentions, Mikkel casually dropped his hands to his side where his wand was.

"Well,¡¨ he began, choosing his words carefully, ¡§you don¡¦t have to go it you don¡¦t want to, and I suppose I would prefer you stay. Not for the purpose of reporting you, though I will remember your face, but for company and conversation, I suppose ¡K¡¨ he concluded, voice trailing slightly to the end of his weak proposal.

[Alondra Redson]

"Okay, so basically you're telling me that you want me to stay for someone to talk to?" She asked him and then turned around fully to look at him. She wondered how in the world things like that worked. He wanted her to stay, a teacher, a superior. Just for company. It was odd.

"Why on earth would a professor want to hang around the darkest parts of the forest with a student?"

[Mikkel Delling]

Mikkel smiled slowly and risked a dry laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood. He knew it would be a right failure though, because the tone set by the Forbidden Forest made feelings of joy and its variants a rare thing indeed.

"Alright, you've got me there." He said, raising his arms as if he were surrendering. "The way you put it makes me sound like a creepy old man, but hopefully, that's not how you really perceive me. I don't think the 'darkest parts of the forest' is an ideal place for conversation, but I thought it would be for you as you've obviously ventured here before."