Chapter 9: Chapter Seven

"According to Hagrid, the herd moved to the west, so we should be coming up on them shortly. I don't think they would be traveling too much in the evening and...and you're not behind me anymore." Charlie stopped and rested his hands on his hips as he turned around in search of Anora who probably wandered off too far back without him noticing. "Anora..." he began making his way back. "Anora!" he called out in a harsh whisper. "Anora!" "What?" the voice came from behind him. Charlie clutched his chest and leaned against the nearest tree. "Don't. Do. That." "What? You called my name and I answered." "Where did you go?" "Thought I saw a good place to pitch my tent over there." "And?" "Too much coverage, I wouldn't be able to see the stars. So nope." "Alright, well, I think I finally found the herd." "Oh yay!" "Shh!" "Oh right...yay." she said in a faint voice. "Follow me." He took hold of her hand and led her through the forest when he finally stopped. "Okay, this is it." Anora crouched down behind a bush as a wide smile crept across her face. The unicorn herd of the Forbidden Forest were resting in the clearing for the night. Charlie sat down and pulled Anora over to sit. The adults were such a shade of pure white that it was almost blinding to stare at them too long. "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie!" Charlie sat there watching her shake his leg to get his attention. "Yes, Anora. I'm waiting for you to continue." "Look, look at the baby! It's so cute!" she squealed. Charlie glanced out to see a foal step awkwardly over to an adult. Besides their smaller sizes, the babies were easy to distinguish since they were a pure gold color. Gradually as they got older, the gold would fade to the white color the unicorns were known for. The young one that Anora pointed out was fairly young, probably not even a year old. There were a few other young ones as well, their horns just starting to grow placing them around four years old. "They're so beautiful." Anora sighed. Some of them began to walk over towards them. Charlie smirked, the white of Anora's hair matched the unicorn's almost perfectly, making Charlie believe that's what attracted them over. Truth was, they had been around the herd before, during classes or their nightly visits. While the adults seemed to mainly trust females, the young were open and trusting towards everyone. However, Charlie had been around them so much during his years in Hogwarts that they were all comfortable around him. "Hello darling, look at you." Anora whispered softly resting her hand on the golden foal that had stumbled over to her. "Aren't you the cutest thing ever?" Suddenly, her shoulder was nudged by an older one, still somewhat gold but beginning to fade. "Hello..are you jealous of all the attention?" she chuckled. They sat there greeting, complimenting and petting until the unicorns grew bored of them and returned to the clearing to continue resting. "This is exactly what I want to do." Anora said sitting down again. "What? Study unicorns?" Charlie asked. "Well, not unicorns per say, but being this close to the animals...that's what I want." "Set up your tent somewhere and just study an animal all day." "Yeah, without having to worry if we're going to get caught being out after dark." she smiled. Charlie nodded and then it grew quiet for a moment. "We should do it." he said. "Huh? We should do what?" Anora asked looking over at him. "What we want to do. We should go to Romania, and study the dragons. Be up close and personal. That is what you want right?" "Well, yeah, but Charlie our parents-" "Anora, we're both of age to leave and go out on our own. We can both apparate-" "Says the man who failed the test." "That was one time. I passed the second." "Charlie, we can't just up and leave and run off to Romania." "Why not?" Charlie arose to his feet. "You and I have talked about having an adventure since as long as we've known each other. If we don't have the adventure now, when will we?" "Oh I dunno, maybe after we graduate?" Anora said. "Charlie, we only have this year and then we can do whatever we please." "But we can do that now. Honestly, Anora what do you think you're going to learn this year that you haven't learned already?" "New spells? I would-" "New spells that you can learn from a book, you've learned the spells and charms before the professors even had the lessons." Anora was running out of excuses, leave it to Charlie to have an answer for everything. "What about Tonks? We can't just leave her?" "Tonks is going to be busy focusing on becoming an auror. And it's not like we won't stay in touch with her." "So what? We just leave? Can you imagine what your mother is going to say? What my parents are going to say?" "They can say all they want, by the time they figure it out we'll be in Romania." "Now, hold up and wait just a second...we're not telling them in person?!" "No. That's the beauty of writing a letter." Anora laughed. " A letter? Honestly, Charlie, we're going to receive a thousand Howlers if we just send a letter. What would we write? Hello Parents, we've decided to go off to Romania to study the most dangerous of beasts. Don't worry, we'll see you at Christmas." "It could use a little tweaking but I think that would be a good start." "You're actually serious about this aren't you?" "I've never been more serious in my life." "What about quidditch? You're captain?" "Ollie can take over as captain. He should have no problem." "I can't believe we're talking about this." "Anora, we've been talking about this for ages, it's about time we actually act upon it. So what do you say? Will you go to Romania with me? Study dragons? Have the adventure of a lifetime?" Anora looked out to the unicorns that were asleep except for one that kept watch over the herd. She thought of her parents and could only imagine how furious they would be with her if she actually decided to tag along to Romania. Her mother would be livid, and her father would be purple in the face. She turned to Charlie and let out a heavy sigh. "Let's do it. Let's go to Romania."