The Forbidden Forest - Mick Meets Harry Potter (G) Final

[MickLifeCrisis]

Previously on The Forbidden Forest...


“Don’t even think about asking me to wait here,” Beth told Mick. “First, I’m not going to wait alone in a place where such strange things are happening. And second, there is no way I would miss the chance to see a real unicorn!”

Mick smiled and scooped her up. “Let’s go then,” he said and took off with vampire speed into the woods, following the path of the centaur.


Conclusion


Mick slowed down when he neared the group of centaurs, setting Beth on her feet. Harry, Ron and Hermione were climbing down off of Firenze as Mick and Beth slowly approached the group of centaurs and a very frantic unicorn standing at the edge of a ravine. He could sense the nervousness of the half human-half horse beasts.

“I will not harm you; I am here to help save the unicorn.”

“FIRENZE!” one of the centaurs shouted. “What do you mean by bringing this vampire into our presence?”

“Please,” Mick continued. “It is not his fault. He warned me not come but I chose to come anyway. I can help, and we are wasting time.”

Meanwhile, Beth couldn’t help but notice the agitated unicorn mare, knowing she wanted to flee but refusing to leave her young. “Oh, you poor thing,” she said softly as she went to her. “It’s alright; he’s here to help you. There, there,” she said, stroking her mane. “Don’t be scared.”

The others all stared in amazement while Hermione walked slowly over to Beth. “I can’t believe she’s letting a Mug…I mean a human touch her. How did you know that unicorns prefer females?” she asked quietly as she too, began to stroke the beautiful snow-white mane.

“I didn’t,” Beth answered simply. “I’ve always loved horses and I can tell she’s in distress. I’m sure her foal can sense it as well.” She turned, looking at Mick and then at the others. “Please, stop this squabbling and help this mother and her foal!”

Harry spoke up. “Tell us what happened. How did the foal get down there?”

A centaur took a step forward. “The foal was curious and stepped too close to the edge of the ravine. It crumbled and gave way. The foal was swept down with the rockslide and partially buried.”

Harry carefully stepped to the edge to look down at the foal. “He’s gold color!” he said excitedly, looking back at the others. Just then the edge started to crumble and Harry gasped. Before anyone knew what happened, Mick reached out with vampire speed and pulled him to safety, falling together on the ground as more rocks tumbled into the ravine.

“Are you alright?” Mick asked Harry as they both stood up and dusted themselves off.

“Yes, thank you. Boy that was close!” Harry noticed Mick staring curiously at the lightning bolt scar on his forehead, but he didn’t say anything. Harry self-consciously pulled his bangs back down covering the scar.

The neighing of the unicorn mare brought them all back to the moment. Mick walked over to the edge and looked down. “I can jump down there,” he announced. “By not touching the sides, it will prevent any more rocks from falling.”

The centaurs stood in silence. Beth turned to Mick, keeping one arm around the unicorn’s neck. “Are you sure you’ll be able to jump back up with the foal?”

“I think so. He doesn’t look too big. There’s one way to find out!” And without another word he leapt into the ravine.

The others moved as close as they dared so they could see. Mick landed gracefully near the foal and walked slowly towards him, talking softly. “Easy fella, easy now. I’m going to help you. Now just lay still while I get these rocks off you.” The young unicorn was lying on his side and looked at Mick warily. Mick began to remove the huge rocks one by one, tossing them away as if they weighed nothing at all. When the unicorn felt the weight lifting from his legs he began to kick and whinny, anxious to get up.

"Ow!” Mick said as he took a hoof to his thigh. “Hold on there, I can’t get at these rocks with you thrashing like that!”

The mare picked up on the anxiety of her offspring and began to toss her head and paw the ground. “Hey, hey!” Beth said, still holding on to her mane. “Listen to me, you have to stay calm so your baby will calm down and Mick can help him.” The mare shook her head one last time and nuzzled Beth with her nose, as Beth kept clear of her horn. “That’s better. Now tell your little one to stay still until all the rocks are off,” she whispered to the magnificent creature. The mare began to whinny softly.

“You really don’t think…” Ron began in a scoffing tone before Harry nudged him with his elbow and pointed to the golden unicorn below. The crowd at the top of the ravine stared at Beth and the mare, then turned to look down in the ravine when they heard the foal neigh in return and saw that he had stopped thrashing.

Firenze looked at Beth. “You have a way with magical beasts, human. It is a rare gift indeed and one that not even all magical people possess.”

Hermione leaned over and whispered to Beth, “You’ve impressed a centaur! That’s not easy!” Beth returned the girl’s warm smile.

When the foal lay still, Mick once again began removing the rocks at vamp speed. Soon the foal was free, and Mick encouraged him to stand up.

Beth and the unicorn mare took a few steps closer to the precarious edge to look down upon Mick and the colt. “Mick!” Beth called. “Will you be able to jump up this far carrying him?”

“I’m not sure; I think so. I’ll give it a try to get the feel for it,” Mick replied. He crouched down and put one arm around the colt’s hind legs and the other around his chest. Straightening his legs, he easily lifted the young unicorn in his arms. “So far so good!” Mick called. The mare nodded her head in understanding.

With a slight knee bend, Mick jumped up about 15 feet and came straight back down, landing safely on his feet.

“Well?” Harry asked anxiously. “Will you be able to do it?”

Mick nodded. “Yes, I don’t think it will be a problem.” He bent his knees again and leapt for the rim of the ravine where Beth and the mare were standing.

Beth breathed a sigh of relief when Mick landed safely and set down the foal. But before the happy reunion could take place, there was a loud crack. Beth screamed as the ground in front of her gave way. In that strange kind of slow motion she saw Mick give the scrambling baby unicorn a push towards his mother and then watched in horror as Mick fell backwards, disappearing into the gaping ravine.

The children immediately pointed their wands into the gorge. “Spongify!” Hermione shouted, softening the rocks at the bottom to cushion Mick’s fall.

“Ron!” Harry said to his friend. “The falling rocks – blow them up!” The two boys shouted “Expulso!” and with repeated bangs, the rocks blew apart into smaller pieces.

“But they’re still rocks!” Hermione cried. With a wave of her wand she pointed at the rocks just about to fall on Mick and shouted, “Pinnaeifors!” The multitude of puffs that followed sounded like popcorn.

The soft landing startled Mick, but when he looked up he was speechless. Hundreds of doll-sized aprons in all shapes and sizes fluttered down on top of him. He picked them up – white lacy ones, bibbed ones made from calico like his mother used to wear, carpenter’s aprons, even red-checked barbecue aprons – and laughed as he held them up for the others to see.

At the top of the ravine Harry and Ron turned to stare at Hermione. “Aprons? Really?” Harry asked.

“They were supposed to turn into feathers,” Hermione said dismayed. “I must have pronounced it wrong so it sounded like ‘pinafores’ instead.” She looked down at her feet.

Beth giggled and ran to give her a hug. “Oh Hermione! I don’t care if they were aprons or feathers! I’m just so happy you were able to protect Mick! Thank you!” She opened her arms to draw in Ron and Harry as well. “Thank you all!”

The boys were clearly embarrassed and extricated themselves from Beth’s hug as quickly as they could. And suddenly, Mick was there standing next to them.

“I’ll take that hug the boys are giving up,” he said with a half grin. Beth ran to his waiting arms and he kissed the top of her head. Letting go of Beth he turned to shake the boys’ hands. “Ron, Harry. Thank you for your quick-thinking.” He turned to Hermione and put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her to his side. “Thank you for yours as well, Hermione. Oh, and here.” He gave her a handful of the tiny aprons and she laughed as she accepted them.

Mick felt a nudge in his back. He turned and was stunned to see the unicorn mare bob her head and whinny.

“She says thank you for saving her colt,” Beth said. In a conspiratorial whisper she added, “I think she likes you.” Mick reached up tentatively and stroked her mane.

“That’s amazing,” Hermione said in awe. “Unicorns are notoriously skittish around men. And you’re a vampire as well!”

Mick admired the beautiful creature. “She’s gorgeous,” he said. He turned to rub the nose of the gold colored colt that had come up to Mick. “Are they always this color?

“It is indeed amazing,” Firenze said, stepping forward. “I would not have believed it if I had not witnessed it with my own eyes. To answer your question, unicorn foals are born golden as you see here. They turn silver around two years of age, and become snow white at age seven.”

“What about their horn?” Beth asked.

“They grow their horn at age four,” Firenze continued. He turned back to Mick. “We are humbled by your willingness to face danger for one not of your kind. Unicorns, and especially their foals, are rare and revered in our forest. Our thanks,” and bending one foreleg, he bowed. The other centaurs did likewise before running off into the woods.

“I’m glad that I could help, Firenze,” Mick said. “And now, if someone could lead us out of these woods we would appreciate it.”

Firenze nodded. “This I will do.”

“We need to get back to Hogwarts,” Harry said. “We really aren’t supposed to be in the Forbidden Forest without a teacher present.”

“The unicorn will guide you,” Firenze said.

Beth hugged them all once more. “Thank you again. Take care now.” They waved good-bye and followed after the unicorn and her colt. She took Mick’s hand. “I’m ready to see our inn again, aren’t you?” she asked Mick.

“I am indeed,” Mick said.

“Follow me,” Firenze said. “I will show you the way to Hogsmeade,” and he started walking. Mick and Beth followed.

“You know,” Beth said to Mick as they walked along. “This probably explains some of the strange things we thought we saw in that pub.”



The End.

[Marigold]

What a lovely ending!

I'm so relieved that the unicorn and her foal are okay. Beth and Mick did a great job of working as a team to keep them both safe. Hopefully, their actions have proven to the centaurs that vampires are not necessarily 'bad' people.

I liked Hermoine's pinafore spell.

Thank you, MLC! I enjoyed reading this.

[Lucy]

Exactly what were they drinking at the pub?????

Cute tale, once again Mick does well for the vampire nation.

Thanks for the crossover!

[allegrita]

I loved the pinafores--what a fun side-effect of pronunciation! It's very Potter-esque, and perfect in this context. I love to think that Mick and Beth are doing a lot to change the minds of the magical elite about vampires, and that maybe things will change as a result of this interaction.

Thanks for this brilliantly executed idea, MLC! I really enjoyed it.

[jen]

This took Moonlight in an entirely new direction!

Excellent answer to the challenge!

Thank you

Jenna

[MickLifeCrisis]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it! I wouldn't expect centaurs to change their thinking overnight, but it's a step in the right direction.

While the rest of the spells used here are actual HP spells (according to HP websites (and boy are some of those detailed!)), Lucky and I made up "pinnaeifors" using the "-ifors" suffix for transfiguration (also from a HP wiki). I had the feather idea and she came up with the pinafore part, and here we have it! Great teamwork!

("Pinnae" is a Latin term in zoology for feathers.)

Thank you for reading and leaving comments!

[eris]

I guess Hermione can leave all those little aprons lying around for any of the castle elves who might take a fancy to them.

[MickLifeCrisis]

I guess Hermione can leave all those little aprons lying around for any of the castle elves who might take a fancy to them.

She can knit matching hats to go with them.

[librarian_7]

I wanted to mention that I really, really enjoyed giving MLC a (small) helping hand with this....it was enormous fun bouncing ideas back and forth!

I was--like many--a little dubious of how the two 'verses would crossover, but it turned out, I think, very well. To me, one of the wonderful things about Harry Potter (at least in the earlier books) is how charming and light-hearted the world is. Yeah, there's that nasty He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named lurking around, but much of it is just clever and inventive. And I think that MLC has captured that same sort of feel with this story. While fitting in...our vampire and his lovely girlfriend.

Great job, MLC!

[MickLifeCrisis]

Aw... Thanks, Lucky! I had fun, too!

[allegrita]

I absolutely agree, Lucky--and also, there's a cool connection between Moonlight and Harry Potter, in that there is an entire separate culture living under the (unwitting) noses of the Muggles / mortals, with a select few knowing about both worlds.

[francis]

This was so great. Love the aprons. If Hermione gives them to the elves will they be free?
Beth and Mick both impressed the centaurs. What a lovely story.

[MickLifeCrisis]

Thanks for reading and commenting, francis! I'm happy you found it and enjoyed it!

[allegrita]

Ooh! I think Francis is right! Those pinafores might free some house elves!

I really enjoyed this crossover story, and I love the fact that Lucky helped you with it. It's just like her to come up with such a subtle play on words that was both funny and erudite.