It wasn’t warm, but at least it wasn’t raining again, Ambrose thought to himself as he and Dan stood at the bottom of their tree. The great oak tree was a quality that might be used for wands. English oaks were the most common tree species in the UK[1], Ambrose had learned that from scouring the dendrology books in the school library with Dan earlier. They had been checking the tree every day that month for budburst and first leaf, which helped them to observe the resident bowtruckle population who lived in the tree.

Ordinarily the boys started their Monday afternoon lessons with double Care of Magical Creatures, a free period (easily wasted mucking about with more beasts due to their favouritism for Professor Donovan’s subject) before dashing back to the castle for Professor Storm’s defence lesson. Only there had been no Professor Storm today. He’d been absent at yesterday’s incredible day which had been both fascinating and awful for all the teenagers (and adults) and according to rumour, might never return due to an incident at the weekend. Ambrose had barely managed to suppress his glee at hearing the news, until they realised they still had to try and pass an exam in it.

“I can’t get the image out of my mind,” Ambrose grumbled to his good mate, “I asked Juni if she could ask her dad about obliviating the day out of my memories, cos he’s an obliviator and all.” Mr Zamperia would probably suggest it was important Ambrose remembered the lessons from the panel, lest he gain a grandchild …

“You think we should try some woodlice today, as the leaves are starting?” He asked, remembering they were there to study.

1.	and this cat found out from the Woodland Trust

"Yeah yesterday was pretty horrible but I don't think obliviation is the answer" Dan chuckled. Yesterday had been interesting that was for sure, now safely tucked away in the back of his mind.

His arms were cold as he still had his sleeves rolled up but he was too stubborn to roll them down. He simply nodded to Ambrose at the suggestion of woodlice and retrieved his note book from his shoulder bag.

Ambrose was great at this, which made the class one of Dan's better ones as he could study alongside his good mate.

Ambrose reached into his bag and pulled out a glass jar. The lid was screwed on, but the top was punctured with little air holes to allow the occupants to breathe. On a sticky label on the side, Ambrose’s uneven handwriting declared Oniscus asellus, and beneath that was scrawled ’woodlice on his cousin attempting to sell us’ which had been a study tip from Ambrose’s first girlfriend, Cyhirae Trishna during his fourth year. One way to score a few more points in an exam was to remember the proper Latin names of bugs and animals, and turning them into silly phrases worked for Ambrose. He could just imagine his cousin Linus covered in common shiny woodlice because he was trying to sell them to someone.

It was something he was trying to apply to his other subjects, but unfortunately it was more the wand-waving issues as well as the comprehension for his other subjects, and they didn’t benefit from Ambrose’s complete captivation. Dan was lucky, he had enough brains to begin with and just needed to study. The two of them were putting in more hours, but couldn't deny a reason to focus on their favourite.

“Do you - oh.” Ambrose caught sight of Dan’s notepad. “You gonna record then? Alright.” Ambrose approached the tree and went up on tiptoes in his trainers. He didn’t want to lean on or try and climb the tree, because the bowtruckles would not trust him or worse attack them. He reached up with the jar and carefully as he could, allowed a few wriggling woodlice out near a place they had observed bowtruckles before on the lowest branch.

Dan started writing as Ambrose let the wood lice out on to the tree and they both stood back to watch.
"I love the outdoors Ambrose," Dan said as they waited.

Soon enough one bowtruckle emerged to feast on the lice and as usual Daniel made notes in his own shorthand recording everything he noticed with his sharp eyes. 

Ambrose could recite facts about most magical creatures for days. Dan was much better with the big dangerous ones.

“Hey there little man,” Ambrose greeted the brave bowtruckle under his breath as he scooped up the nearest wood lice in his twig fingers and began to gnaw on it, keeping its tiny little brown eyes peeled. Dan began to scribble notes, but Ambrose just observed, trusting his mate to be able to share them, and relying on his eyes not to miss anything. The bow truckle retreated a step or two, sinking down on the branch, before glancing back at a second crawling out. Ambrose held his breath, watching as the second bowtruckle crept forward, reaching for the lice which had now begun to burrow and crawl round the branch.

“Pretty cool eh?” Ambrose asked Dan in a whisper. “I had a feeling we’d get lucky today.” Then he glanced to his friend and tried to suppress a giggle at his choice of phrasing given their earlier subject topic. “With the bowtruckles I mean.”

Dan smirked cheekily at Ambrose's phrasing, there was no way someone as awkward as Dan around girls would be getting lucky any time soon. He smiled at the bowtruckles, his uncle had once found some being smuggled and had released them into the wild. As much as his family was involved in crime, they never smuggled creatures. Even they considered that inhumane. As he scribbled furiously in his notebook Dan kept his eyes on the nimble little creatures, he really enjoyed working with magical creatures.
"They're really amazing aren't they. Ambrose" Dan said in amazement as the bowtruckles ate the wood lice.

“Aren’t they just?” Ambrose echoed, enthralled with his observations and attempts to interact with the creatures not much longer than his fingers. He edged a little closer, the bowtruckles now feasting on the woodlice with glee. Everything was going absolutely perfectly…


Ambrose and the bowtruckles both jumped and looked above them at the upper branches of the tree. There, pitching back and forth, caught in the branches, was a runaway broom. Probably one of the school ones, ridden by an unlucky first year who could have been dumped at any point along the way.

“Crap!” Ambrose uttered back to Dan as they realised. The bowtruckles were in action, leaving half-consumed woodlice on the branch as they clambered upwards to defend their tree. “Do you think you can release it? If I try I’ll probably burn the tree down…”

"Bloody hell", Dan said to Ambrose as the broom stirred the bowtruckles into a frenzy as they tried to defend their tree.
"I'll give it a go, though maybe not with magic, I don't want to hit any of them."  He found hand holds on the tree and clambered up, climbing quickly while trying to avoid the bowtruckles himself. Even though he was trying to help they wouldn't care about that.  One or two tried to attack Tom but he fended them off with a swipe of his hand. He reached the broom and with one hand tried to pull it free. It was stuck firm however and he had to tug on it with both hands. He managed to get it this time but it came out with a lot more force than he suspected, now he was pulled off the tree and hanging from the rogue broom feet dangling in the air.
"Well, this isn't what I wanted to do today. A little help Ambrose?" He asked straining with the effort of holding his weight.

“… though maybe not with magic…”
“Oh, right - I thought-.” Ambrose replied, meaning he had considered magic but only that he'd get it wrong for being, well Ambrose. He trusted Dan’s wand a hundred times more.

Before Ambrose could clarify further, his dorm-mate was clambering up the tree as best he could, trying to avoid the bowtruckles, who were streaming up it towards the broom too. Ambrose moved around the bottom of the tree as Dan’s shoes vanished through the branches, and he tried to get a better view of where they’d all got to.

A moment later, Dan was dangling in midair from the misbehaving broom, and the bowtruckles were all on the outer extremities of the branches pelting bits of broken branch at him.

“… A little help Ambrose?”
“Oh merlin!”

Ambrose fumbled for his wand, and tried to think what he could do without setting Dan’s trousers alight. He winced as he pointed it in the air at his fellow Gryffindor, and tried to point it at the broom instead. He didn’t dare speak aloud in case he stumbled over his words, but thought hard about the charm. Descendo!… come on, sink. He cast again, wincing.

Dan felt the broom start to lower gently and he thanked his lucky stars Ambrose had got the spell right, but thanks to the bits of branch being chucked at his head he was still a bit nervous. The bowtruckles were unnervingly accurate and it was after a few hits to the head that Dan just closed his eyes. He dared to open them after a few seconds of relief only to get hit directly in the eye.
"Bloody Oath!" He instinctively reached for his eye only to now realise he was only hanging on by one hand. He almost dropped from the broom but managed to cling on. "Please keep it steady mate, I trust you Ambrose."

“Please keep it steady mate, I trust you Ambrose.” Dan was possibly one of the last remaining classmates who did, but it wasn’t the time to dwell on it, as Ambrose gritted his teeth, keeping his hand steady and his concentration on his floating friend. The projectiles continued to fly from the bowtruckles, but on the upside they were out and observed by both wizards.

“They’re protecting their tree, this is awesome - even if we didn’t want to upset them!” Ambrose exclaimed from below, and the broom shot down through the air suddenly, enough to leave Dan’s stomach behind. “Oops! Ok, I got you, nearly - theerrrrre….” Ambrose’s brow furrowed with concentration, trying not to glance at the bowtruckles as Dan’s feet neared the ground.

As soon as his friend touched down, Ambrose let out a huge sigh of relief, tension leaving his body, and wiped his brow where beads of sweat had begun to form with the fear he was going to drop Dan.
“I’ve never been so glad to see you on the ground.” Ambrose admitted, clapping his fellow Gryffindor on the shoulder, “quick, we best record this, oof!” A twig socked Ambrose between his eyes.

"I could hug you Ambrose!" Dan said, relieved to be well relatively safe on the ground, "Usually I love being in the air but then again I'm usually in control." He ducked a twig, "And usually I'm not being attacked!"
Dan had dropped his own notebook in the confusion and avoided a stick as he bent over to pick it up, "Nice work with the spell by the way mate, I knew you could do it" He smiled and was hit in the teeth with a particularly large twig. "Right! That's it you buggers."
Dan drew his own wand and with a flick of his wrist cast a shield charm to protect Ambrose and himself from the barrage.
"Try and take some notes now? At least we can do it in peace," Dan said chuckling

“I’d say don’t hold back, mate, but we’re under attack.” Ambrose laughed as they skittered backwards away from the tree to avoid the missiles better and retrieve the notes.

“Right! That’s it you buggers.” The missiles began to ping off the shield Dan projected, and Ambrose breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks mate, I don’t blame them, like, you did just climb their tree.” He shrugged at his Gryffindor housemate, and began to take notes, sketching the height of the tree. “How tall do you reckon, how many of them…?” Ambrose was thinking aloud as he made the notes. He hadn’t the quickest handwriting, but he could do a fair sketch and annotate it which was often quicker.

“Perhaps we could give them some more woodlice as a peace offering.”