Chapter 276: Wood's Curiosity
In the back garden of the Magical Creatures Hut, Nana was hard at work like a diligent farmer. She kept pulling Galleons from her pockets one after another and spreading them across the ground as carefully as if she were laying out grain to dry. She had nearly carpeted the entire yard in gold.
Recently, she had discovered that coins left to bake in the sun gave off a wonderfully comforting scent and retained a gentle warmth. Lying on them was especially cosy. So Nana had been very busy "sun-drying" her hoard.
Inside the hut, Evans was explaining to the sixth-years the structure and peculiarities of magical forests.
"The Forbidden Forest is unique, even among magical forests. Ordinary magical forests may have a few zones with very different environments, but they're rarely divided into such clearly distinct regions as the Forbidden Forest…"
Strictly speaking, Hogwarts students were not supposed to study magical forest ecology. Officially, students were still banned from entering the Forest, even if, in practice, most older years treated the outer edges like a back garden they could pop into and out of at will.
Beyond the Forbidden Forest, Britain had no truly impressive magical woodland, and herb-gathering and the like was left to specialist witches and wizards. There was hardly any reason for schoolchildren to be involved.
As a result, Hogwarts had no formal course covering magical forests at all.
But there were no major exams like O.W.L.s in sixth year, and this batch of students had already surpassed his original syllabus. Evans didn't mind slipping some extra knowledge into the lessons.
With a grounding in magical forests, exploring other countries later—whether on adventure or holiday—would be that much safer.
The only problem was that today, the class seemed… off.
He could clearly see how listless the students looked. At the start of the lesson, a few had even been jumpy and tense, shooting wary glances around as if expecting danger to leap out at any moment.
That was not how Hogwarts students usually behaved.
Yes, life at Hogwarts did involve more traps and hazards than was strictly reasonable, but the overall learning atmosphere was relaxed. There were many things, but being traumatised was not usually one of them.
He thought back to the timetable. They had just come from Sothia's first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.
Evans's curiosity sharpened.
Because his own Monday Care of Magical Creatures classes overlapped heavily with Defence, he hadn't had a chance to observe Sothia's debut.
What on earth had she done to leave them this drained?
He decided to drop by the school after class to find out for himself how she was teaching.
Meanwhile, at the back of the room, Wood reached his arms forward to stretch, yawned—and immediately yelped as he pulled a sore spot in his shoulder, baring his teeth against the pain.
He had checked after Defence and found no visible injury, but according to Professor Sothia, it would be a few more hours before the tenderness faded completely.
Thinking about what had caused that pain, Wood shuddered and cut off the memory at once.
Too awful. Far too awful. Best not to dwell on it.
Much safer to think about what Percy and Penelope were planning to do in Norway over Christmas.
As a member of the Magical Creatures Club, Wood had learned most of this material long ago, some of it from first-hand experience in the Forbidden Forest. Professor Kahn's current lecture was extremely basic from his perspective and not particularly helpful.
His mind kept circling back to Percy and Penelope's secretiveness.
They really couldn't be planning a prison break… could they?
He glanced at the pair in the front row. Percy and Penelope were huddled close, whispering together. Then he turned to Gemma, who was twirling a quill and very obviously not paying attention, and leaned forward to whisper.
"Don't you think Percy and Penelope have been really mysterious lately? They hardly spend any time with us anymore."
Up until recently, the group had been fairly close. Percy, Penelope, Gemma, and their other friend were all Prefects. Penelope and Gemma bickered constantly, but they knew each other well. Wood himself got along with Percy and had often joined them in the library to study. Once they all made it into the Magical Creatures Club and began weekly forays into the Forbidden Forest, their bond had only grown stronger.
Over the last fortnight, though, Percy and Penelope had started avoiding them.
Gemma set her quill down and frowned, thinking it over, then nodded slowly.
"No idea. But those two have definitely been sneaking around."
"Um… I might know a little," Dev said hesitantly from Gemma's other side. "A few days ago, I saw Penelope in the library. She was looking up books on the Sea of Wraiths and asked me to help her find several more."
"When I asked why she needed them, she kept changing the subject. No matter how I tried, she wouldn't say."
"Exactly!" Wood brightened. "That's exactly what Percy did when I asked him. At first I thought they were planning to sneak off to Norway for some kind of private holiday. But last night I overheard them talking. It sounded like they were planning to go into the Sea of Wraiths to find someone."
"Going into the Sea of Wraiths to look for someone?" Gemma sat up a little straighter, now properly interested.
As a pure-blood witch, she knew perfectly well what sort of place the Sea of Wraiths really was.
She looked down, turning things over in her mind. "They started acting strange after the basilisk, didn't they?"
"I think so," Dev said quietly, still puzzled. "But we all fought the basilisk together. If that's why they want to go to Norway and find someone, how is it the rest of us have no idea what happened?"
Before she'd even finished speaking, Wood suddenly stiffened, eyes lighting up. He stared at the two in front, who were still oblivious, murmuring to each other, and a slow smile curved his mouth.
"Maybe not everyone is in the dark."
He remembered something Harry had mentioned during Quidditch practice a few days earlier. Before they'd all faced the basilisk together, Harry and Penelope, along with a spirit called Sir Podmore, had confronted Lockhart—the same Lockhart now locked away in Azkaban.
It was possible Penelope had learned something then, something that had set her on this path to Norway.
Having found what felt like the key, Wood's mood lifted at once. He resolved to corner Harry during the afternoon's Quidditch session.
His good mood lasted right up until he stretched again without thinking and tugged at his shoulder, making him wince all over.
Merlin's beard, would it really stop hurting in a few hours? Perhaps he ought to drop by the hospital wing after class, just in case.