(Forest) Saving you, Saving me

[Carrieanne Darke]

It was a dark stormy night and Carrieanne was sitting in the office of the Hospital Wing gazing out of the window towards the Forbidden Forest. She had finished up her work from the day before. However, what really bothered her was the fact that now that she was done, what was she going to do? It was stormy and the winds were blowing making the trees outside sway violently, she wanted to go for a walk, but couldn't because she didn't want to be drowned or for lack of better terms, she didn't want to get wet. Moving the chair out and stood up, she walked over towards the window behind her crossing her arms as she gazed out at the rain and the grounds.

"Ugh.. What am I going to do?" she sighed, boredom... she hated being bored. Anyway, while she was looking out the window a bolt of lighting struck in the Forbidden Forest. Oh and the crackling sound of it made Carrieanne jump back a little from where she was standing. Her brown eyes glued to the sky from which the bolt had ended. Prying her feet from the floor, she walked back up to the window and looked towards the forest once again. Seeing a light flicker in the forest, it looked like either the bolt caused a small fire or someone was shooting up a flare from their wand for help. Quickly she turned on her heel and grabbed her winter cloak. With that she bolted out the of the office grabbing a supply kit and decreased it's size to place in her pocket, then shut the door.

Walking quickly down the corridor, she passed people left and right excusing herself from any bumps that she may have caused. It wasn't long before she reached the steps to get down to the ground floor, fasting her pace down the stairs, one of the professors told her to be careful or she would trip. "I'll be fine thanks," she said as her voice trailed off making her way down the stairs. Her hand slid down the railing of the stairs at as fast as her feet would carry her, within no time her foot hit the last step on the ground floor before heading out the doors on the side near the great hall. Lifting her hood, she gave a hard push and opened the door only to feel a rush of wind blow her hood off her head and her long dark brown hair all over the place.

Lowering her head slightly so she could bare the sting of the rain hitting her skin, she walked out and shut the door behind her. Carrieanne wasn't taking any chances with this kind of weather, it was to risky and it was her job as a healer to make sure that it wasn't someone hurt. The rain pour down from the sky hitting her cloak hard as it felt like someone tapping her from all around and the loud bursts of thunder crackling in the sky peirced her ears making her wince. With her hood over her head, she was able to see maybe two feet in front of her which indicated the visibility wasn't so great. Well yeah, duh, of course it wasn't. This meant either one of two things. One, she'd get lost really quick or two end up running into something.

Walking across the court yard her eyes squinted hard trying to gaze above her at the dark gloomy clouds, the rain stung her face and quickly streamed down her cheeks. It felt good against her burning skin, she was hot, but she wasn't stupid to take her cloak off just to get cooler. That would have been a sure fire way to get sick and of course, she didn't like getting sick either. After passing the court yard and the lake as well as the large oak tree, she found herself walking down a rocky path towards something unknown to her. Lighting hit over the lake and the sound of thunder roared ringing through her ears, Carrieanne nearly came out of her skin, but she did see the entrance to the Forbidden Forest only a few feet away. So as she rushed as fast as she could, she could feel that her hair was drenched and so where her cloak and clothes that stuck to her slender body.

Finally she stopped at the entrance to the Forbidden Forest and looked at the dark foggy path that led into it. Pulling her wand from the inner pocket of her robes, she called out "Lumos!" as the thunder roared again making it impossible for anyone to hear her. She stepped onto the path of the Forbidden Forest and began to walk again this time only a bit faster, she wasn't sure of what exactly would be lurking in the creepy so called haunted or dangerous place. Carrieanne did take precaution and remained well alert to her surroundings, but the thunder can tend to make her a little deaf at times. Tonight was a stupid night for someone to be out playing around knowing that it was stormy and the forest was dangerous. But at least she wasn't bored anymore and out of the school for a little while. Still finding it hard see anything except for the ground in front of her and her wand that she lit held snuggly in her hand, she proceeded through the path full of thick branches.

More often than not, she kept having to duck under limbs that were grown on the trees or stepping over logs so she wouldn't trip. Ohhh, tripping over is never a good feeling. Especially if you don't know what you tripped over. Hearing the thunder continuously sounding off, she kept walking and called out "Hello!! Is anyone out here?!" Looking around, she still couldn't see anything, glancing side to side and around as she continued to be on the look out for someone or a fire of some kind. Carrieanne walked a little further from where she thought she saw the flicker of light. Instead, she found a little clearing no bigger than the hospital wing. It wasn't wet and was slightly warm there, a bit unsual but good for her in a sense so that she could get a little warmer than what she was.

Looking around on the ground, she had found the place where the flicker of light she saw had hit. It was the place from where the lightening bolt had struck. No wonder it was warm there. enough for her for the time being to warm up and dry off. Carrieanne glanced around the clearing, not only to check it out for anyone that was hurt, but for some who like playing practical jokes on people, if it was someone joking, they would be in a world of trouble. The young woman looked down by her feet on her left side and there was a log large and long enough for three people to sit upon. As she sat down gracefully and continued to glance around and tried to figure out what was going on, she decided to call out once more "Is anyone out here in need of assistance!!??"

[Prof Octavious Everritt]

Addis was in the middle of the storm, blindly walking through the forest. His wand was shielding his face as he walked, the simple barrier spell doing little to deflect the amount of rain that was falling. Lightning stung the sky, lighting up the path before him.

With being used to the darkness of the forest came a sense of direction and knowledge of where he was walking. Like the other Rogues, he knew where to fall and land softly or where to fall to feign death. His knowledge of the forest only helped in times of battle though, as the sun and infrequent lightning strikes were of little effect here.

He looked up when a flash exploded above him, before the lightning strike the ground before him, his senses exploding before him. He saw nothing but a white flash and felt the stinging heat as he was flung backwards, striking a tree not fasr behind him.

He fell to the ground and closed his eyes, feeling the intense heat fade slowly, before he opened his eyes to a strange setting, one that he wouldn't of believed if he wasn't a wizard. He slowly stood up, though the pain wracking his body and carefully leant against the tree. He summoned his wand back into his hand, carefully holding it as he appeared in the warm setting before him.

Before him was a clearing. A clearing the size of a small ward at a hospital and inside was a pocket of air warm and relaxing to the skin. He walked into it, light illuminating from small, glowing embers at the base of the trees and the branches above him. His eyes followed about the forest floor, seeing it as he never had before. It was hard, like timber floors and as he walked the echo of his boots echoed about the small place. His gaze was soon lifted up to the branches of the trees.

In a wave of amazement, he forget what he was meant to be doing but remained where he was. The branches above him were moulded into a one piece ceiling, his eyes following the branches intermingling with one another creating a effect like he had never seen before.

For minutes he stood there in awe before he heard someones voice. He automatically turned and fled, fleeing back into the night and concealing himself in the shadows as he peered into the clearing. Inside, a Hogwarts healer appeared, sitting gracefully down upon a log. He waited for a moment before venturing out, remembering that he was Octavious and not himself at that point. He walked into the clearing, dripping wet and looking at her with a warm expression.

'No, there is no one in need of assistance.' Addis said, bowing formally. That was a lie as he bowed, his body grimaced with the effort, however he kept control over it. 'I am Professor Everritt, Animagus Tutor.'

He remembered the introduction as he had seen the woman before, though he had never spoken to her. 'And to whom am I speaking?' He asked, continuing on before taking off his damp robe and folded it. He opened the palm of his hand and cast the basic hover charm and put it to the side, where it floated. 'The Ministry will not take lightly to a healer being out of the castle on a night such as this. A likely excuse is that she needed her herbs desperately in case anyone fell sick on this night and the only Professor she could find, me, went along with her to keep her safe.'

'There are Ministry patrols all over the forest, you just need a cover in case they find you. If that is not any good, then please, tell me so, so I can change it.' He said, crossing his arms and smiling gently.

[Carrieanne Darke]

Carrieanne sat there on the log swearing to herself that she had seen someone enter the forest when she was up in her office, could her eyes be decieving her at such an early age? They couldn't have been and highly unlikely. Or maybe they were, but they couldn't be, not at twenty four. Her eyes traced the outline of the area around her, that was until she turned her head to see someone walking out of the shadows and nearly scaring the life out of her.

With a light gasp of air, her hand flew up to her chest holding it there, taking a deep breath and let it out as well as a smirk. "Oh heavens you scared me." she stated as she stood up watching him bow formally to her. "A man with manners, wow. It just gets better and better." she thought to herself. As the man introduced himself as an Animagus Tutoring Professor. The young healer smiled "It's a pleasure to meet you, Carrieanne Darke, one of the healers at Hogwarts." she replied.

Almost forgetting to formally greet him as well like her mother had taught her to do. She stood there still trying to gather herself back together a few minutes longer, she watched as he folded his cloak and left it hoovering in the air and off to the side of him. Always intrigued by the slightest things that magic could do, she heard the Professor speak and turned her attention back to him. He had mentioned something about the Ministry not liking her being out at this late hour.

Carrieanne looked at him with a confused look as he started cooking a story up to tell the Ministry, in case if they found her out in the Forest "I hardly think not. Why cook up such rubbish?" she raised her eyebrow as she placed her hand on her waist. "I would tell them the truth, besides, what could they do to me? I was doing my job as a Healer to make sure students and staff are safe. Even if it means coming out into this dreadful forest. Personally, I'd rather be up in the wing stocking shelves instead of being out here." letting her hand fall to her side.

She sighed softly seeing the smile on his face. Carrieanne couldn't help but to smirk, did he just do that to get her rouded up. For the life of her she had no clue. Seeing a tinge of black on his clothing, she tilted her head the opposite way and looked up at him "Are you sure that you don't need any help?" she asked pointing to the black on his shirt. It looked like a burnt mark, but she was uncertain since his arms were covering the rest of it. That and the smokey residue on his face didn't help much either.

[Prof Octavious Everritt]

Addis looked at the woman with a strange look upon his face. She was looking at him like he had something on his face, which caused him to wipe to face. He looked down at his hand and swore under his breath, quickly wiping it on his clothes. Then with a bemused smile, he noticed the dark tinges on his clothing.

'I believe it's evident...' He said, chuckling lightly. He shook his head and sighed. She was offering help to him and he would be wise to take it. 'I feel pain in my shoulders and my lower back mainly, though in my arms and knees is slight tingling.'

He didn't like to admit his pain, though she was looking at him with a curious look, one that didn't really unsettle him much. If Gobien were here, he would surely be flirting, or at least attempting to flirth, with her.