บท 18: The Forbidden Forest
The Holidays were finished as the day of the New year was over, everyone returned to Hogwarts and once again, the school became busy.
Daphne almost scolded Neal for giving her such an expensive gift after learning from her mother that it's a real 10-carat ruby which costs thousands of galleons. Neal replied that he didn't know about it and lied that the stone was found by him accidentally in the muggle world.
After forgetting about the matter, as Tracey, Malfoy and Neal showed her that they wear the bracelet with S carved on it, she too showed that she wore it. They decided that the bracelet will be the symbol of their gang and will be worn every day.
While the Gryffindor trio is busy with finding out who the heck is Nicolas Flamel, Malfoy was rapidly improving in the classes and gaining House points from the teachers which surprised the rest of the class.
When the Trio first heard of it, they didn't believe it. Only during the charms, Transfigurations and the Potion class, they saw an abrupt improvement in Draco's studies. They don't know that he daily drinks the Wit-Sharpening Potion to gain intelligence temporarily.
Because of him, Harry and Ron never concocted a potion even once as he always disturbs them at the right time or stalls them for an extra few minutes while brewing the mixture and made Gryffindor lose lots of points in the class.
Outside of the class, instead of insulting Ron with their financial situation, he started to use his brothers as an example and compares him with them, which made him frustrated as all of his brothers were indeed intelligent and Prefects and have great scores.
Slowly the winter passed and Spring started on March 21
In this period, the only major event that happened is that Malfoy made Prof. McGonagall catch the Gryffindor trio successfully red-handed while they waited for a friend of Charlie Weasley who is supposed to bring back the baby dragon Hagrid had, at the top of the Astronomy Tower.
Malfoy who stopped using the Potion didn't ask Neal again and thought he didn't need it anymore and prepared to lose 50 points for 150 points of Gryffindor.
And Just as he had expected, she not only took off 150 points from Harry again and made the points he gained from the Winter House cup useless, she also took off 50 from Slytherin for Malfoy and also told them they will serve detention for it.
From the next day, Everyone in the school started to hate the three of them while Slytherins praised Malfoy even though he lost 50 points.
As Slytherin won the House Cup for the straight-six years, students of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw hoped Gryffindor would break their record just as they broke their Quidditch record. But because of their rule-breaking again, their hopes were dashed and it turned into hate.
After that, Hermoine who always loved attention in the class began to lie low. Meanwhile, Harry is trying to train hard for Quidditch to redeem himself even though no one in the team talks with him. It is expected, after all, they lost 300 points alone in the year and also Gryffindor students began to hate their Professor too who took off too many points from her own house.
One more person who is lying low is Neal which Daphne and Tracey found it really strange. They found after the Christmas holidays, for some reason, Neal is always reading books about magical creatures and rarely available on weekends.
As the March is going to end, Harry is slowly redeeming his reputation by catching the snitch as fast as possible. Especially the match with the Hufflepuff was ended in a mere 2 and a half minutes which was the record in the history of Hogwarts.
Meanwhile, the "shut boy of Hogwarts" Ron, which Neal gave the idea and Malfoy spread out, I.e. Shameless, Hopeless, Useless and Tactless boy of Hogwarts; was just like his nickname, without any shame of losing the points, was just enjoying playing wizards chess, roaming around, disturbing Hermoine's studies and gets ready to get physical with others instead of using wand or thinking about for a second, when others insult him.
In the first week of April, The Gryffindor Trio was suddenly called to Prof. McGonagall's office. As they were wondering what they might have done, she said, "you three didn't serve you detention.
The three were stupified to hear it. Before they reply, she asked, "what? Did you think I forgot since I didn't summon you then? That's only because it was very dangerous at that time.
It would be too much of a punishment to you guys if I sent you then But since the forbidden forest is peaceful aside from occasional troubles now, its the time for you to serve your detention".
All three of them tried to argue, "But Professor...". She interrupted, "hmm, will you three go or should I just take off the points again for not obeying Professor's orders?". They grudgingly accepted, "yes, Professor".
Then she said, "meet caretaker Filch after dinner. He'll explain to you what to do". They nodded and went to meet Filch while cursing her in their minds. With their lanterns in their hands, all three of them followed caretaker Filch and Mrs. Norris, his pet cat.
Soon, they reached the edge of the forest and saw three people and a large dog there. Harry broke into a smile even before seeing a person as his size tells him who he is even from a distance. Just as he thought, it turned out to be Hagrid.
But soon, their eyes narrowed as they saw Malfoy stood there and Neal petting the dog. Upon seeing them, Neal stood up, "oh, you guys are here? Let's go".
Harry asked in a narrowed tone, "What are you doing here?". Neal replied, "Malfoy is like you guys facing detention while I'm on an official Hogwarts business". Ron scoffed, "huh, Hogwarts business? At this time? Who are you fooling around".
Malfoy sneered, "Oh, please, he isn't a "Shut boy" like you, Weasley". Then Harry defended him and they started arguing again. Neal sighed, "this won't do. Draco, you are going with Ron and Hagrid. Harry and Hermoine, you two follow me".
Malfoy almost screamed, "Hey, what are you talking about. You told me you will let me follow you". Neal replied, "what should I do. We need to form two teams of three. No matter who ended up on our team, you'll argue with them anyway.
You are safe with Hagrid and Fang, anyway". While Harry said, "I'm going to team up with Hagrid. We won't follow you".
Neal replied, "you are not going on a field trip. You are serving detention. You have no choice in it. So, stop arguing and follow me behind. I already wasted too much time. Hagrid, I'm going. If two of these four don't follow me, I'll just report as it is to the Professor".
Then he started to walk into the forbidden forest without hearing what everyone else have to say. Hagrid then said, "well, it's better this way. Neal knows this forest just as much as me. You two just bear with it and follow him into the forest".
Harry nodded, "well, it's better than going with Malfoy anyway". Both of them also started to walk quickly while trying to catch up with him.
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