The Forbidden Forest, 9:30 AM

 “Heeere chick chick chick. Heeeeeeeeere chick chick chick.”

Taryn Dickenson was not looking for chickens. There was really no point in her making a chicken-hunting noise, but she couldn’t think of a way to call for giant spiders, so chickens would have to do.

During the Welcoming Feast, they’d been told – as, apparently, the Hogwarts students were always told – that the forest beyond the castle grounds was, quote, ‘Strictly forbidden.’ But Taryn figured that she wasn’t actually in the forest. She was on the edge of the forest, admittedly deep enough into the trees that she had to duck low-hanging branches, but still within view of the hospital hut. So she wasn't really breaking the rules. Besides, how could they expect her to stay away from so much potential? The forest of Hogsmeade was famous - or infamous - for its magical wildlife. There were rumors of centaurs and unicorns, acromantula and giants, kelpies, pookas, cu sith, and a dozen other species, known and unknown, roaming the trees.

Taryn wanted to see them all. This year at Hogwarts might be her one and only chance, and she wasn't going to let it pass her by.

Footsteps echoed from up ahead. Taryn went very still, hunkered behind a thick tree, and listened. The dew-moist earth and echos off the trees made it hard to tell how many legs it had - she was hoping for eight, but four would do - but whatever it was, it was coming closer. This was her chance. Taryn grinned to herself, pressed her back against the tree, and held her breath. When the footsteps passed her tree, she pounced.

"Gotcha!" she laughed, and it was only after she hoisted them bodily off the ground that she realized her quarry wasn't an animal. It was a person. She'd snatched them right off the walking path. "Uh, whoops," she said, setting them back on their feet. "Sorry. Thought you were a spider."

It might seem odd for a Prefect to be violating the rules, but not all prefects were strict adherents to the rules. Josh, contrary to what some thought, was one of these. In this case, he was simply looking to see if he could see some of the rarer wildlife that resided in the Forest. keeping a wary eye out, he was utterly shocked when he was suddenly yanked up into the air. He was distinctly unimpressed by the other student's explanation. "You thought I was a spider?  first, the acromantula herd rumored to be in here would be clicking, as well as scuttling about, not waking. Second, why would you even want to see one of them? they'd kill you as soon as they'd see you." Josh asked, slightly crossly. The Salem Student's grip had hurt.

If by-the-book, proper Gryffindor Prefect Joshua Harcroft was one to skim the rules, he didn't hold a candle to Ligeia. Not that she broke rules, that would be a bad example. Rather 'patrolling the forest perimeter to keep out those not allowed.'

And by 'patrolling' that meant lugging out the crossbow and hand painted targets she animated throughout the fringe. Ligeia was an odd sight on her sniper's mound, shadowed under her wide parasol balanced at an odd angle though it had yet to fall over. Flat on her stomach, she squinted down a sight dark enough for her eyes but bright enough to see the world as if it were a sunlit day. She followed Buzzard along the sight, minuet pivots of the crossbow in her hands, before scanning for another one of her targets. There was one. Shaped like a muggle ghost, those humped blob-shaped spectres like a jellyfish without tentacles. The snarling face and clawed hands were another artistic licence. It was wood painted black, with white rings to mark the bullseye.

She followed it, getting a sense for it's path behind the treeline. Steady breaths. Predicting where it would go. Steady aim, not a tremor to shake it off. Ligeia squeezed the trigger.

There was something like a small earthquake, and it disrupted Ligeia's shot. The arrow missed the target, heading through a cluster of trees over a dozen feet off. Ligeia looked through the sight. The very much giant related Salem's student holding Joshua like he was a doll. And the bolt had been fired right at them.

"That wasn't my idea for a first introduction," Ligeia said calmly, packing up her sniper's mound before tracking them into the woods, Buzzard flying before her.

((OOC, the bolt disintegrates before it hits anything living. No one is in danger!))

"Scuttling is walking, dummy. You ever tried to count footstep with these echos? It's hard!" Taryn turned the boy around to face her before setting him down, taking in that he was Gryffindor and a 'prefect', if the badge was any indication. She scowled. "An' no they wouldn't, I can handle big bugs. You should've seen the centipede I wrassled my freshman year." To be far, it hadn't been her misfired Engorgement charm that caused the thing to grow up to twenty feet, but she'd been the one to get the blame anyway, at least for the general mess.

She'd just set the boy down when something shot through the trees at her like a bullet. Instinctively, she recoiled, but the thing had already hit its mark - or at least it would have if it hadn't evaporated inches before hitting her shoulder. Tayrn blinked at where the thing had been. "Did you see that? Hey, ya'll don't got some kind of magic porcupine around here do ya?" She held in a sound that, even muffled through her throat, was undoubtedly a squeal. "That would be awesome!"

Sadly, the woods did not produce a giant quill-throwing rodent, but it did deliver a large condor that didn't fly like an entirely wild bird. Tayrn cocked her head, her mind suddenly filled with a tuneless but addictive song from her few ill-fated childhood trips to Girl Scout camp. "Three short-necked buzzards. Three short-necked buzzards. Three short-necked buh-huh-uh-zzards livin' in a dead tree," she muttered, then followed a trail down, down, down from the bird to find an extremely white girl in the blue robes of Ravenclaw heading their way. She wore a badge too, in bronze. "Neat bird. Yours? Also, who the heck are ya'll?"

" And your size helps with venom how exactly?" Josh said sarcastically. He was curious at seeing the bolt[1] nearly hit whoever it was that had grabbed him. His family were keen archers, but generally used longbows, not crossbows. Then he saw Ligeia. "I didn't know you were a crossbowwoman, Ligeia. I'm a keen archer myself." Josh said, ignoring the girl who had grabbed him for now. "Where did you get those bolts, by the way? something similar might be useful for when I'm shooting off a few arrows. would be safer, anyway."  Josh asked, looking genuinely curious.

1.	crossbows fire bolts, not arrows

Up close, Ligeia was able to appreciate just how tall the Salem's student was. She had to tilt her parasol towards the back of her head to keep her field of vision clear. "Yes, he's mine. Buzzard is a very keen Griffon Vulture.[1] They're much smarter than people give them credit for, aren't you?" she cooed to her pet.

She introduced herself. "P.E. Ligeia Canterbury. You've met Mr. Harcroft already." It was a simple deduction as to the other question when Ligeia fingered her badge for a moment. "We're both prefects, those are students that have extra responsibilities and help the staff keep the peace."

Ligeia gave Joshua one of her dark lipped smiles. "You just have to pay better attention. This used to be Papa Argyle's though I've had it customized." She held the crossbow up at an angle for them to see (nonplussed when the trigger accidentally went off and another bolt shot into the tree line). "I use Terminal Terminating Bolts when I'm not hunting. They disintigrate before hitting someone living, as you see. Wiseacre's in Diagon stocks them,  I think they have more tadtional arrows too."

"Which, I gather, you must have been hunting for something yourself," Ligeia continued to the half giant. "Everyone at school knows it's dangerous to go into the forrest, though I'm sure you can swat away anything that would try to attack you." She had already made Ligeia's list of 'Interesting People' rounding out the half-breed section that had more obscure mixes like goblins and merpeople.

1.

link

"Right...I got the prefect lecture on the blimp." Taryn nodded as though she knew what Ligeia was talking about, though she didn't entirely understand the system. Mostly she chocked it up to being a weird British thing and left it at that. "Name's Dickenson. Taryn, if yeh care. Nice to meet'cha."

Taryn liked the look of Ligeia. She was exotic, almost ghost-like, and her voice seemed to float straight from the muse of Poe. The other guy - Harcroft, she'd called him - was more prickly and stuck-up sounding, which suited a prefect. Besides, like he could scold her over poke about for beasts. What else would he be doing, crawling through the trees like that?

As the prefects talked arrows and ammunition, Taryn turned her attention to Buzzard. "But you are a good-looking bird, ain'tcha boy?" she said, addressing him directly. "Nice strong head, neat feathers, and that wingspan - turn you on your side and you'd be nearly big as me wouldn'tcha? Yeah, you would." She clicked her tongue and offered the bird her arm, wanting a closer look but knowing better than to push her luck with someone else's pet.

Being addressed again brought her eye back to Liegeia, and she grinned. ""Course I was huntin'. Supposed to be an acromantula nest 'round here somewhere right? Figured I could get a good look at one of 'em, no better chance. Heck, there's supposed to be all sorts of critters out here - kelpies and unicorns and all that." Her face swam into a dreamy expression, sliding into a goofy grin. "Must be nice, having all that close by. Want to take advantage of it while I can you know?"

Josh laughed when Ligeia said he had to pay better attention. "yeah, I guess I do. Wiseacres stocks them?. I'll have to go there sometime, I get my arrows somewhere else." Josh said, listening to the now-identified Dickenson talk about wanting to see an Acromantula.
"Well, if you're determined to see one, there isn't much I can do to stop you. I will, however, suggest that one or both of us comes with you." Josh said, indicating him and Ligeia."We can keep the acromantula from killing you." Josh added.

Pulling a finger guard[1] out of his right pocket, slipping it on, Josh then pullied a shrunk quiver out of his left pocket, along with a shrunk bow.

Drawing his wand, he cancelled the Shrinking Spell on the bow and quiver, making the bow grow until it was 6 feet long. it was an English Longbow, which were renowned for their power. It migth be a surprise that Josh had a bow that was taller than him, but he was lethally effective with it. Putting the quiver on, he said " with this, the acromantula rarely bother me. 175 pounds draw weight[2], I can fire 10 arrows in approximately a minute. Can hit a person-sized target out to 180 yards reliably. Edge of range, if accuracy isn't important? 400 yards. Though to actually hit anything at that range is usually luck." Josh summed up, yes, he bragged about his bow. So what?

1.	a small piece of leather designed to protect the fingers when you are drawing a bow. there can be 50-60 pounds draw weight on a modern bow, it can easily damage your fingers an English Longbow could reach 185 ponds draw weight.
2.	I imagine he can fire the bow primarily due to his Beater's build. That and long practice

A hunting down students, it was surprisingly much easier to accomplish than one might've first thought, because most of them had a hogwash and haphazard sense of danger that led them only to one place: The Forbidden Forest. And Hagrid spent most of his time there anyway. So when he saw the fresh trail of an inexperienced student walking around the outskirts of the Forest, Hagrid had quietly followed the trail and then silently stalked up to a hiding place by the students. All of them in his class too.

This bunch wasn't exactly that far in, but it didn't stop Hagrid from creeping up on them and ducking behind some thick foliage. Even in the looming and towering trees of the forest, a half-giant like Hagrid could find a cozy and quiet hiding spot to eavesdrop. Years of hunting and making a home at Hogwarts also made the forest feel like home as well. But when the topic of acromantula's came up, Aragog's children, Hagrid decided that there was going to be a change in topic.

From behind a knotted and thick tree and a gathering of bushes that sat behind Taryn, Hagrid slowly rose from the foliage; his bearded head was seen first, pulling the rest of his broad-shouldered and heavy build with him, until he rose to his full height--overshooting the younger witch by about four feet to cast a condescending expression down at Harcroft.

"You try and' go huntin' for an acromantula," his deep voiced slowly cautioned, "yer mostly likely ta be shot by somethin' else before you even find one, lad."

Then in a quicker and matter-of-fact tone, "If I don't send you off shovelin' the hippogriff stalls, first."

Before Ligeia had a chance to reply something had loomed from behind Tayrn. Something bigger than her, which was saying something. It could be any dozens of creatures that could be pouncing to attack, maybe a migrating mountain troll, but then she recognized the mountain of animal pelts and the haystack of black hair.

"Professor Hagrid!" There were plenty of famous and infamous staff amongst Hogwarts in years past and Ligeia had positively gushed when she learned that Rubeus Hagrid had returned to teach Care of Magical Creatures. After hearing the stories second hand, he was high on her list of past teachers should have liked to meet. Past years of Creatures had been boring compared to the tales of Hagrid's tenure.

"We were telling dear Tayrn hear about the forrest." The small, minuscule fog of her mind that piqued up every once in a while, to remind her that she was a prefect and should be setting a better example, was yowling to be heard. Advice she was taking to hand. "I'm surprised at you, Joshua Harcroft! Just because she isn't from our school and even though seeing a live, fully grown acromantula would be thrilling, we can't let her do as she pleases if it would be dangerous. What if she disappeared and the only evidence left was a few oversized severed limbs?" Beyond the fact that she was only equipped with the Terminal Terminating Bolts. It wouldn't do for deterring monstrous arachnids.

Buzzard, perhaps miffed by the larger and larger people joining this group, fluttered back to sit atop her parasol. He hissed. "The forrest is stimulating for conversation," she told Hagrid. "Even just the edge of it here. You must have many stories about what events have taken place between these hollow trees."

“That’s…That’s horrible.” Taryn stared at Harcroft’s bow in disgust, cringing away from his detailed description of exactly how fast and far he could use it to fill some poor creature with more holes than swiss cheese. “I don’t wanna hurt the poor thing. What’ve you got to go pullin’ something like that out for, huh? We got magic. If you get into trouble yeh stun the thing and clear out. You don’t gotta hurt it!”

Besides all that, she was rather put out by Harcroft’s insinuation that she couldn’t handle herself just fine. She’d spent half of elementary school wrestling coyotes and handling rattlers in the back yard, and Cretan Bulls were no pushovers either. She liked company on a search just fine. In fact she wouldn’t minded at if Ligeia and her good-looking bird wanted to come along – Ligeia was funny, in a morbid sort of way. But protection? And from a little snot like Harcroft? Hell no.

A rustle and a voice from behind made Taryn turn, straightening from the hunch she’d gotten to hear what the two prefects were saying. A broad, pelt-clothed chest met her at eye-level, and it took a full minute and a half for her to process the very unfamiliar need to look up, which made a number of unused muscles in the back of her neck complain. She stared up, bewildered. Then she smiled.

Rubeus Hagrid.

Being the children of eccentrics and a literally dying breed, half-giants were rare. Taryn was fairly certain that she was the only one in North America. Half-giant heroes were even rarer, almost nonexistent. Except for him. Taryn had grown up with stories of Rubeus Hagrid the same way most kids heard of Harry Potter. To find that such a hero had returned to Hogwarts the same year that she arrived, and returned to teach her favorite class, had been enough to send her more childish side - the part that was more giant than human and was therefore still growing out of the mindset of a four-year-old - squealing.

"Mornin' sir," she said, perhaps a bit too eagerly, beaming up at the Professor. "Don'tcha worry, we ain't hunting acromantula, not with whatever he's pulling out. I just wanted a good look at one. But I guess they'd be further in." There was a hint of disappointment in her tone. She may have been more than willing to bend or skirt the rules and would do both on a regular basis, but breaking them outright was a little beyond her. Ligeia's prompting for stories brought her high spirits back. "How far do these woods go anyway? It ain't like normal folk just go walking through it to get to the next town no more."

"Dickenson, an Acromantula can only be Stunned if more than one person hits it. You're right, though, I would never fire it at one unless it was an immediate threat. As much as it might seem different, everyone who uses a bow knows exactly how dangerous they are. That's why I asked Ligeia about her bolts, since an arrow like that would make archery practice a lot safer."
That was when Hagrid made his appearance. "Hagrid, I'm not looking to hunt Acromantula, and I know about the Centaurs in the forest. I was only concerned for Dickenson's safety if she ventured further in. They might nit attack you, but the rest of us cant'be so sure so some form of protection is useful." Josh said, looking contrite. he hadn't realized the half-giant was around, or he wouldn't have talked about the possibility of needing to shoot the acromantula. Hagrid was known to adore them, though there were only rumours about why.

When Taryn asked about how far the Forest went, Josh spoke up again. "they go right to the edge if the grounds, I think, but no-one really knows how far exactly that is."

The Forbidden Forest was one of Raven's favorite places. Not only was it not frequented  by students (it was Forbidden, after all), but no matter how many times she explored the place, there was always something new she discovered. Often, when she had the free time, she would merely travel through the canopy of the forest, occasionally making herself comfortable in a branch and taking a nap or sketching a creature before he, or even just to listen to the sounds of the forest. There were so many wondrous noises in the forest, from the sound of the wind whipping through to the cries of the various creatures hidden from sight. The thick, high branches of the trees made it possible for her to travel throughout the forest without ever touching the ground, her tracuer skills coming in very handy. The pureblood found she could do pretty much whatever she wanted here. Sing, dance, make fun of people behind their backs, record flora and fauna, do homework, practice her parkour moves, work on her fencing and hand-to-hand combat skills... and it was all out the eyes of the school's staff.

She knew better than to get too close to the centaurs, as they were not the most friendly of creatures, though they allowed her to observe them at far distances once they realized she meant them no harm and was merely some curious student of Hogwarts. That relationship had taken years to build up. And there was no way she would go anywhere near acromatula territory. Aragog's children were always hungry, and she had no interest in becoming their latest treat.

Dressed in her exercise gear, the sixth-year jumped from one branch to another, her gloved hands reaching out to smaller extensions of the tree to recollect her balance while her owl sailed next to her. She had just come from deeper inside the forest, which was technically against the rules, but she it wasn't her first time. Knowing that the more hardy of teachers wouldn't hesitate to track her down in the forest, the heterochromatic had put in some effort to hide her trail. Now she was heading back to the school, where she would probably go get something to eat from the House Elves in the kitchen. They were always fun to be around.

Climbing down from a taller branch to a lower one, she checked her weight on it before jumping to the next tree, grabbing onto a higher, thinner branch and swinging on it to help her get across the larger gap between the two trees. Letting go, Raven sailed nimbly through the air to land on her target tree, albeit with some wobbling. Clenching her teeth, she waved her arms about in an attempt to gain balance, which fortunately proved to be successful. Just as she was about to jump down at go by ground to the school, as she was now in the outskirts of the forest, the sound of voices drifted from among the foliage, grabbing her attention. 'Now who could that be?' Curious, she climbing further up the tree before switching to the next on, getting closer to the voices.

After a few minutes of careful and quiet movement, Raven found herself looking down on a very odd group. The first she recognized was the mot obvious; the half-giant Care of Magical Creatures Professor, Rubeus Hagrid. The two armed individuals were Prefects, one being Joshua Harcroft, a Gryffindor, and the other being the pale Ravenclaw, Ligeia Canterbury. The last of the group Raven was disappointed to not recognize, probably meaning it was one of the foreign students. And judging by her size, a half-giant as well. Suddenly, the Slytherin didn't feel so tall anymore.

“Good morrow, ladies and gents,” She called out to them all, lounging lazily in her branch as if it was totally normal for her to be fifteen feet up in the air in a tree. Nyx swooped in, landing next to and glaring coldly at them with his amber eyes. “Fine morning, isn't it?” Grinning like a maniac, she rested her head on one hand. The shadows made her face partly hidden, but her eyes managed to stand out, one a churning maelstrom of colors that made it hazel, the other looking as if someone had dropped some blue-tinted cream into it. Her gaze lingering on Joshua's bow and Ligeria's crossbow, her grin widened by a few molars. “I hope you don't intend to go out hunting. The centaurs barely tolerate humans walking around in the forest, much less killing its inhabitants.”

As instantly as Hagrid warned the troop of wandering too close to danger, everyone seemed happy to address him. "Professor Hagrid" did a great job of calming the half-giant's demeanor as he stood up straighter and smoothed out the front of his tunic. Then "Sir" made him proudly tilt his tin a little higher as the girls expressed how acromantulas should be treated fairly, not barbarically. Then Harcroft made a quick move to correct his speech and Hagrid cleared his throat before adressing the group once again.

"Ah yes, stories, I've got a few. Afraid they won't do any good to disinterest the lot of you though." He added with a joking mumble of his deep voice. Then he nodded at Taryn's, "That's the thing lass, you can't head straight through these woods and expect to come out the other side..." then, as a lazy afterthought he added, "or at all."

Then he turned to Harcroft with a pitying stare, "Oh..." he began with an awkward formality, "There's more than Centaurs that'll shoot at you boy. S'why it's called forbidden." He raised a finger to that and nodded his head, in a much more happier mood after being so well respected. It was much different than his past days at Hogwarts.

Then he heard the rustle and shake of branches from above, and his attention was immediately diverted to one of his other students jumping the heavy branches of the tree-tops, returning from a trip from within the Forbidden Forest. His gaze was quizzical and disinterested as Raven Whitman addressed him and the group, and with his blooming pride and sense of authority he assessed the situation quite quickly.

He returned the girl a modest smile before letting his voice boom through the treetops, "Whitman! I see you've volunteered for a weeks worth of detentions! I do really need the hippogriff stables shoveled out, cleared of dung, you know," Hagrid's smile faded for a minute in casual contemplation, as the bushes behind him rustled as another professor emerged. Ignorant of the professor's presence for a moment, Hagrid gave another delightful nod and added, "And since you've got the free time the Fire Crab's make a bit of a mess too, so you'll clean them up too. You can start tomorrow and just be finished with yer new chores next Friday!" He proudly crossed his hands behind his back for a moment, before dropping them by his sides again as he looked back at the other students and gave them an oblivious and casual smile.

Far, far below Raven, there was the faint sound of leaves being crushed underfoot, until another, tinier figure emerged from the bushes and joined them.

“I could use some new stool samples of a Fire Crab,” Bai said quietly, as she stepped over one particularly overgrown root. At a middling five-foot-five her appearance made her the smallest to join Taryn’s little expedition, and the professor seemed even smaller when she deftly climbed down the sprawling limb to stand beside her fellow magizoologist. Still, despite the clear difference in height, it was clear she was able to keep up with him; even after trekking through the Forest with him she did not appear winded at all. She remained as composed as ever as she leveled the errant girl a serene, unblinking stare. “Its dung does a great deal when used in burn salves, among other things, as I’m sure you know.”

Which, Bai was quite certain of, the girl probably didn’t. Even from a glance it did not strike her as something that the student would be interested in, if she idled in the Forest’s treetops so easily.

Unruffled by Raven’s lack of concern, however, Bai continued on smoothly. “So when you begin, do not use magic, please,” she said, delicately plucking a leaf from her shoulder. “Even the simplest levitation spell nullifies it properties.”

She looked down, at the other students, and dark eyes met those of the tallest and held them. “If you really must see an acromantula, Miss Dickenson, I would have considered such a request should you have asked,” she added, tone gentling slightly when she turned the stare onto Taryn. The half-giant girl had always, consistently and enthusiastically, been one of her best students. Bai did not like playing favorites—refused to play them, really—but those who excelled in her class were inevitably given that extra bit of consideration. “Or Professor Hagrid,” dark eyes flicked at Joshua and narrowed slightly, “in the very least. He knows these forests better than I.”