Dominic was feeling in a rather adventurous mood today, the 11 year old was always in an adventurous mood, and a hyperactive one. The Gryffindor wanted to explore every single aspect of f Hogwarts, the highs of the school, and the lows of the schools and the middling part of the school. Every single part of the school. After all that was all part of the fun of being at the school.

The Gryffindor rushed towards the lake. It was part of the school that he had explored before but it was one of the trees that he hadn’t yet gone up there. He wondered what he would find atop the tree. A nest of sparrows who were plotting on standing on each other, throwing on a cloak and pretending to be the headmaster in a plot to seize control of the school to steal the hair of the pupils to make a giant nest? That was a possibility.

Another thing that Dommie thought he could find was a portal to another dimension, maybe one where everyone was made out of cheese? Or perhaps a some table and chairs where they could have a tea party with woodpecker? Or maybe he will find out where all the cheese that had been stolen was being kept? In fact that did sound like a job for his alter ego “Dangerous” Dominic, International Spy extraordinaire. This certainly did sound like a job for him.

With a new look of determination on his face the blonde haired boy looked up towards a tree that he had not yet climbed and, without a fear or a second thought the little boy throw himself at the tree and proceeded to start and climb up it. The youngster was a pretty good limber but he did almost fall a couple of times but not really.

He always found climbing and risk taking really exhilarating and exciting, all part of the fun. The first year decided to try and settle on a branch that was reasonably high but not too high. Dominic had to admit that he did have a pretty good view over the lake and the grounds from there. Maybe he should climb trees more often. After all, how was a super spy meant to see what is going on if they didn’t have a high up vantage point from which to spy upon. Sadly, there was no sign of the cheese he was hunting. A small sigh left his lips. Oh well

From the corner of his eye he spotted another boy approaching the tree. ”Ahoy there….” he called down to the lad.

Carefully, Henry slid out of the armchair and walked as casually as he could to the exit of the common room. He wasn’t planning to do anything forbidden, of course not - well, at least not today. But he had finished his homework and would use the rest of the afternoon with a scouting of the grounds. And alone, he would draw less attention to himself which meant it was less likely that he would be stopped and his exploration should anyhow be held against him. Not that Henry really believed that anything like this could happen, but still, there were some things that were better first looked at alone and reported to his friends at a later point. Three people tended to be asked far more often why they were at some place than one little first-year, walking around the grounds with huge eyes. And Henry had to train for the Whomping Willow. He couldn’t get his climbing skills get rusty before such an important project. Therefore, he would look for the best training tree for now. Henry decided that it would be unwise to look for a tree near the Forbidden Forest. Nick was anxious enough without fearing that his protégés would go anywhere near that place.

No, there were some trees around the lake that looked very promising for climbing, and therefore, that was where Henry was heading together with his climbing instructor Gunther. The cat was bouncing alongside him, as always not needing any admonition or force to follow Henry. On the opposite, sometimes he turned his fluffy head and seemed to measure the boy with his eyes as if he considered whether their trip down to the lake was really advisable. To Henry’s relief, Gunther apparently considered everything alright for now, enjoying the walk down to the loch and the trees growing nearby. It was a nice day, and Henry was in no hurry but looked around everywhere, especially up to the castle that offered something new in its appearance every time he gazed upon it. He tried to guess for a moment to which window which classroom belonged but quickly gave up again. There were simply too many windows, and it made him dizzy trying to locate anything inside the castle from the outside.

Just as he had arrived at the lake and wanted to turn his attention towards the trees, a voice called out. Slightly confused, Henry looked around himself but saw no one. He looked down questioningly to Gunther who had his eyes directed upwards to a tree. Following the gaze of his cat, Henry turned his head towards the nearest tree. And there was the caller, a boy Henry thought was another first-year, sitting high up in the branches. Henry waved and shouted the most logical question, ”How’s the tree for climbing?”

Dominic grinned down at the first year Hufflepuff when he asked how the tree was for climbing. The blonde Gryffindor considered this for a moment. It was a very interesting question. Dom found it okay for climbing, but then he was dangerous Dominic, super spy, he could climb anything and do anything he wanted too. If he wanted he would leap off the tree, land on his feet and run off. But, thankfully, he didn't do that. Because, in reality, he would have likely caused himself a very serious injury.

”The tree was fine……” he called down to the lad ”….it didn’t try to throw me off, there was no secret portals to another dimension, there are no karate cucumbers hiding up here wanting a fight, no pigeons that steal peoples glasses to build a nest and, sadly, no chipmunks that steal cheese…..” had he forgot to tell the boy anything….oh yea ”…and there is no chairs having a tea party with woodpeckers either……which is a good thing because I’ve been to those tea parties before and they are so boring. All chairs talk about is what backside had been sitting on it. No-one wants to hear about that when eating a fairy cake,” he shook his head in a rather serious way. ”So, you are spared that anyway.” The blonde boy was letting his imagination run away with him again.

”oooh oooh ooh, you should, you should climb up here and and and join me…..” he offered the boy hopefully. ”…the the view from up here is is aaaaawesome.” he shouted down to him. Dominic took time, yet again, to absorbed in the view. It was pretty good. Maybe not the most amazing view that you could get in Hogwarts, and the view from Gryffindor tower was obviously better. But as far as views from trees go, this one was right up there with the trees he had climbed elsewhere.

The 1st year Gryffindor looked up higher in the tree and wondered if he could climb higher. It was possible but then maybe that would put off the Hufflepuff from joining him. A pang of loneliness just passed over him. The young lad wanted to have some friends, most of his fellow Gryffindor first years at best ignored him. Maybe even they found him too loud, excitable and brash. He knew he would be a really good friend to someone, if only they would give him a chance. He remained forever hopeful.

Henry blinked. What was the boy talking about? Of course the tree didn’t try to throw him off, it wasn’t the Whomping Willow. It was not even any kind of willow. But that had been about the least weird part of the boy's speech. Henry tried to remember his name but at the moment was at a loss. He was Gryffindor like Lizzy, right? But what had that been about portals? And what other dimension? And the cucumbers. Pigeons that behaved like magpies. Chipmunks. Chair parties. One of the two of them was apparently insane, and Henry was fairly certain that he was not that one. But then, there were many strange things he didn’t know, and the boy up there deserved the benefit of the doubt.

At least, the boy was certainly not weird enough to keep Henry from refusing an offer that was as good as identical with his original intentions. And the other boy appeared very excited anyway with all the stuttering. Excitement was not the best emotion when up in a tree because it could lead to loss of control especially in unexperienced climbers, which could very well be the case with the boy as the tree looked very climbable. So Henry figured he might be able to help in case the other wouldn’t be able to get down. That happened sometimes, that the way up was far easier than the one down. ”Sure,” he called up again, grabbing Gunther who patiently accepted his fate. ”We’ll be with you in a moment. Up you go.” The last words addressed to Gunther, he stretched and put him on the lowest branch from where the cat immediately began to climb. Henry jumped up and caught the branch, swinging himself on it, his eyes fixed on Gunther’s course. Without further delay, Henry followed his cat, making quick progress. As he had guessed, the tree seemed to have almost grown to give maximum comfort to whoever tried to get up in its crown.

A short time later, Henry sat down on a branch slightly above and to the left of the other boy’s. Taking Gunther on his lap, he looked around. The sight was very good indeed, he could see the Forbidden Forest and over the lake. It would also be a great training tree, probably they could even stop time to test how ready they were for the Willow. Then he turned his attention to the boy, offering him his hand. ”We’re Gunther-” He pointed to the cat, then to himself. ”-and Henry. What’s your name?”

A look of delight came on Dominic’s face when Henry agreed to climb up with him. Great... he thought to himself, …I might be able to make a new friend. the one thing Dominic wanted more than ever was a friend around his age, especially one that was also a boy. Girls were okay but the it was always nice to have friends your own gender, or so the 11 year old thought. To have some male bonding or talk about stuff that he couldn’t really talk to with girls, whatever that stuff might actually be he wasn’t too sure. As for older students, well, they never really want to do anything fun, just study. Boooring.

However, the Gryffidor was soon confused as the cat was also coming up. Was that cat some kind of assassin? Maybe the Hufflepuff boy was actually his arch enemy, Mister Maverick, in disguise. He considered, briefly, about leaping off into the lake to escape, or to throw the cat off at the Puff as he was climbing up. But not, he knew that was actually a rather stupid idea and that the boy and his cat was not really assassins out to murder him. He was just being fanciful and he knew that full well.

The 1st year Gryffindor shuffled up on the branch he was on to let the boy and his cat sit next to him. He was very careful as he moved across, the last thing he wanted to do was fall off the branch and injure himself. He didn’t really fancy doing that at all. The tree also seemed to help him achieve shuffling up and making enough room for him and his new companions, as it seemed to grow to allow them to sit together. For this the Gryffindor was most grateful. He made a mental note to get it a cake from the kitchen to say thank you.

As he watched the cat and the lad climb up he reflected on how rather impressed that the cat obeyed Henry rather well. Cats were not the most obedient of creatures. The fact he was impressed certainly did show on his face.

”Heya” he said in delight to Henry and Gunther was they joined him. A massive grin was on his face. ”That was some awesome climbing, I wasn’t sure if your cat was a spy or an assassin or not but you both seem to be rather cool.” he told the Hufflepuff rather breathlessly. ”I am Dominic by the way.” he reached out to shake the hand….paw? of the cat and then to Henry ”I recall you from the the sorting. That hat was soo strange. It read my mind but but didn’t seem to want to to read it for too long. It sorted me into the lion house pretty fast….” he did sometimes wonder if his mind was too much for the sorting hat to handle? It was possible.

”I told you the view was cool up here and and and we could try to dive into the lake or or or see if we could spot those flying carrots that only people who squint their eyes like this” Dommie squinted his eyes and strained into the sky pretty hard, almost but not quiet losing his balance. ”ooor we could play a game of of of eye spy. Or or or just chat if if you want.” he didn’t want to scare this boy off. 

It had been a while since Henry had had the last opportunity to climb, and, oh, he had missed it. He didn’t really need Gunther’s guidance for finding his way up the tree, but his cat was, even after all these years, the better climber, and Henry had blind faith in him. All the way up, he payed as much attention to how the tree grew as he could. Henry did prefer to climb trees that provided a challenge, but easy trees also had their advantages. They could be used for experiments, like freely jumping from branch to branch. But even with such well-structured trees as this one, it was necessary to become thoroughly familiar with it at first. As for now, his actions were only imitating Gunther.

Apparently, the boy had not run out of weird things to say. ”An assassin?” he asked incredulously. ”You’re joking right? Why should Gunther be a spy or assassin? What should he spy out? Assassinate who? We’re up in a tree, we’re school boys, we’re at Hogwarts. Nobody can harm us here, right?” A few weeks ago, Henry would have said these words with more conviction, but ever since he got to Hogwarts, there were curious things that didn’t really add up. For one, there were no Muggleborns, further, there seemed to be fear of some of the teachers. And from listening to the older students, it seemed that disproportionately many teachers were completely new. He remembered his aunt’s unease upon his departure. He really had to make Nick or Atha answer his questions about what was going on. What Lizzy and Carin had told him about their parents simply couldn’t be true. Their brothers would know, he only had to ask. If he were not so strangely and surprisingly scared of asking.

He shook his head to chase off these dark thoughts that were troubling him since he had come to Hogwarts. Right now, he was up in a tree where it was airy and wonderful. He should tell Lizzy to make their homework up here, it would certainly help her as they had empirically (Henry was very proud that he knew that word) proven this before. Shoving homework to the back of his head, he turned his attention to the present situation. Gunther was on his lap and seemed to find nothing objectionable about the other boy, Dominic, who directed his mind back towards his Sorting. ”I don’t know,” he admitted, seeing no reason not to be perfectly open as Gunther obviously liked Dominic well enough. ”I was very nervous of what the Hat might tell me, but it was very nice, and when I asked for Hufflepuff, it just agreed.” And it didn’t say that he would turn into a bad person, hugely lightening Henry’s greatest fear.

”Carrots don’t fly,” replied Henry reasonably. ”Unless a wizard makes them.” He eyed Dominic with increasing worry. His stuttering was very pronounced, and Henry wanted to make him less nervous but didn’t know how. ”Are you scared of heights?” he finally asked. ”I’m sure if you breathe deeply and look up into the sky for a minute or two, you’ll soon be fine again.”

Dom nodded eagerly when Henry said assassin ”uh-huh” he told his companion in confirmation. ”Well, I I don’t think you are assassins. But but but when you are Dangerous Dominic, international super spy, you you need to to be careful….” he told him sounding pretty earnest. ”….atlhough I I am not him now, because we are just regular school boys now and and and not spy and and and assassin” he continued in the same tone as before. He made sense to himself anyway.

”Well, people could harm us up here.” he continued with a very serious look on his face ”There could be a a gang of lumberjack grannies about who will cut down this tree with with us in it…..or there could be a a wodpecker about that will be annoyed we are on his favourite branch and he could try and take us on in a a tag team boxing match with him teaming up with his friend the the beaver. Or a a a school bully might come along and try to zap us with spells for for target practice.” he told the boy sounding perfectly reasonable. To him all scenarios could be equally as likely.

The Gryffindor took a while to consider the Hufflepuff again. He wondered if the boy was feeling uncomfortable around him? Maybe I am talking too much?!? Dom thought to himself with concern but the youngster couldn’t really help it, he just had so much to say and so much inside him that it felt like he would explode if he didn’t express it all in some way or another. And the best way Dom felt he could is by talking and by adventuring. He had tried writing but it was so boring and he couldn’t sit still enough to actually write anything much anyway.

Still, he didn’t want his boy to think badly of him. He needed friendship, everyone did, didn’t they. He decided to try and make a bit of an effort to be slightly more normal, or at least what other people would call normal. The 11 year old didn’t know how long he could keep any illusion of so-called normality though. He liked being him a bit too much to change the way he was.

The 1st year listened carefully (if fidgeting slightly) to Henry as he talked about his sorting. It did interest the Gryffindor how the sorting hat actually worked and peoples experience of their sorting. ”I was slightly worried that the the the sorting hat might actually say I I shouldn’t be in Hogwarts and say that I should go home. That there was either a mistake or that I was not just the right kind of person to be in Hogwarts. I was so relieved to be sorted into Gryffindor, I I didn’t know what house that I I was going to be sorted into though, well I didn’t think I would b be sorted into Slytherin because I don’t think that I am the right type of person to be sorted into that house. Not that that there is anything wrong with with being a a Slytherin. I thought that I would be a a Hufflepuff to be honest, I have a a cousin there, do you happen to to to know Amy? She is cool, but can be a a bit bossy sometimes. My other cousin is in in Ravenclaw, Donald, I am so glad I am not in in Ravenclaw thought as they seem so boooring. But I I'm super pleased to be in in in Gryffindor though.” it was quiet impressive, in a way, that he managed to speak so much without really taking a breath.

Dominic frowned again when Henry said that carrots don’t fly. He supposed that it was correct to say that a carrot could make them fly if they wanted too, but couldn’t they fly on their own anyway? He decided against contradicting the lad though. He wanted to make friends with him. He decided to play along. ”Or a a a muggle throws them” he added with a slight grin. When Henry asked if he was afraid of heights a slightly offended look came onto his face. ”Nah, I have climbed plenty of of trees, and and other things as well, like like walls.” he said still frowning. ”I can can can see you like climbing too though. What the the the tallest thing you have climbed?” he asked the boy. Dominic was sure he was being a good judge of character here.

Talking a lot was really not a problem for Henry. He was a chatty child that had often enough driven adults to the border of desperation with his questions (his aunt only being saved by her special Henry-patience). But that was the point. Henry asked. And asked, and asked, and asked, until he was thoroughly satisfied about the problem that had presented itself. But Dominic’s sentences were so full of oddities that Henry didn’t know where he should start questioning. Nothing that he said made any sense. He couldn’t be a spy, there was no reason for spies at Hogwarts. And if he would be a spy, how could he be so deplorably bad at his job that he mistook Gunther for an assassin? Probably he was a mouse agent. That would at least somehow explain it. Probably.

It seemed more likely that Dominic had to be a very anxious child who was afraid of Henry-did-not-know-what. But then Henry always looked under his bed before falling asleep just to make sure that there was no monster under it even though he knew that there was no monster. Dominic might be equally unreasonably fearful during the day, and that was the reason why he was stammering. ”The only one who could harm us up here,” began Henry soothingly, ”are the two of us. But I would never push you from the branch. That would be very wrong. But these other things, they don’t exist. I’m sure. I read a lot, I would have heard of such things.”

Henry looked at Dominic a bit closer. He couldn’t remember seeing him at the Sorting, but then he had been really nervous. The Hat could have told him that he was bad, that he would make his aunt miserable. And then there would have been only one thing for Henry to do, break his wand and go away from Hogwarts to avoid hurting others. But the Hat had spoken well of him, and… he had been so relieved. He made an affirmative sound when Dominic mentioned how he had feared to do not belong to Hogwarts. He had felt the same a few times - when he hadn’t fretted about his far greater worry. It might not be completely fair after what Dominic had just said, but he wouldn’t talk about his fear of becoming like his father.

”Gryffindor is a fine house,” said Henry politely. ”I think I know Amy by sight. It’s that girl with medium long dark hair, right?” She had introduced herself at the banquet Henry thought, but then he had never talked to her again. Not really surprising, there were so many people, and he had Nick and Atha whenever he needed an older student. ”Ravenclaw is a great house,” said Henry, feeling slightly insulted on his aunt’s behalf. ”I would have liked to be a Ravenclaw very much. Only I had thought I’d make a better Hufflepuff and was very happy that the Hat agreed with me.” Secretly he was kind of glad that Dominic was not in Hufflepuff. It was nice to sit with him up in the tree, but to have someone who said so many odd things around all too often might be tiring. For now, Henry was mostly just confused and curious how anyone could come up with such weird things. And of course, he still very much wished to be of help and calm Dominic down.

”If a carrot is thrown, it doesn’t fly,” Henry couldn’t help himself but correct. ”Flying is if you can keep in the air of your own accord. But the thrown carrot cannot stay up on itself.” That had to do with gravity. Henry knew this very well because when he had been eight, he had once spent several weeks questioning his aunt and any other grown-up person he had come across with why things fell always down and never up.

It appeared a bit inconsequent to Henry that Dominic liked climbing when he was so anxious that he would suppose normal cats to be killers. Strange as this might be, the important information had been that Dominic was a good climber. That was something they had in common, and Henry smiled brightly at the other boy. ”I’m not sure,” he answered. ”I’ve been on almost every tree in the Dumbledore Conservation Park. I’ve been to a couple of parks. There were higher trees than this… But there certainly are trees in the Forbidden Forest that are much higher than anything I’ve ever climbed. Oaks are my favourite trees, what are yours?”

Having an overactive imagination could sometimes be a problem for Dominic. It wasn’t that he could not tell reality from fantasy, but he did tend to get lost in his own imagination sometimes and would talk about the strange things in his head as if they were real. Maybe he needed to reign in his overactive imagination or at least not talk so much about what was going on in his own head at times. Then again, it wasn’t exactly dong anyone any harm right? He was just trying to be playful in his own way. Even if that was very, very strange.

He watched Henry with some curiosity was he talked about no one could harm them up here. He was at least sure that the threat of bullies zapping them was a legitimate concern, and that the Hufflepuff should be at least open minded to the other threats that he was talking about. ”Well, the the books could could always be wrong. I have heard of flying books that that attack people before too.” he told the lad with a nod of his head.”Oooh, ooh, ooh, maybe there is a a a nest of of flying books up in in this tree tooo and they have little eggs in in in the tree that give birth to little baby books” again the 11 year old was quiet energetic as he moved and was close to shuffling himself off the tree.

”Although I would not push you or your cat off the tree branch either, because I am nice and and you are my friends….we are friends right?” he asked his yearmate with a curious and slightly anxious tone in his voice. Deep down he was anxious to make friends with people, for people to accept him for who he was. Isn’t that what everyone wanted? The Gryffindor boy wasn’t any different from any other 11 year old child that needed acceptance from his peers. But whatever will be, will be he guessed.

Dom nodded in confirmation when he said Gryffindor is a fine house. ”It sure is” he said in a pleasant voice. ”And that does sound like Amy” he continued. It would be how the blonde boy would describe his cousin. ”She is nice.” he added as way of further describing her. Although if Amy and Henry had not talked much, maybe he didn’t know that.

”Ravencalws are sooo boring though” he informed Henry when he said that Ravenclaws were great. ”You are not boring so so so you would not be in in in Ravencclaw though. You are are too cool to be a Ravenclaw. They always have their heads in in books. I I I am amazed they can can see where they are going.” he told the Hufflepuff with a solemn nod. ”Hufflepuffs are a a a cool house though so that is why you are a a a Huffepuff. Gryfifindors are a cool house tooo.” he continued on in an excitable manner.

”But only non-flying carrors are thrown. Flying carrots fly. They have little wings and and and they flap them.” he was pretty sure that he heard of flying carrots before. Maybe he was getting them confused with something else though. Dommie then shrugged ”But maybe not. I I I am sure there are no flying carrots around here though in in any case”

”Dumbledore Conservation Park is a really cool place to climb but but my parents grounded me for for climbing trees there. They don’t like me climbing. Adults can be sooooo boring sometimes. They say that it it it is too dangerous and and and I am likely to fall. I have only fallen from things a few times. Like four or or or five time….not too many.” he sounded indignant sort of way. Like fall from tall things were normal and his parents were being totally unreasonable.

”I I I still climb things when I can and and they are not about to tell me not too.” he sighed. ”Oak trees are are great. He told him in agreeance. They are my favourite toooo. Elm trees are are cool too,, really tall for climbing some of of of them” he continued enthusiastically. ”ooh ooh ooh you are right, we we we should totally go into the forbidden forest to to to climb trees” he said to Henry upon him mentioning the tall trees there. Probably, totally, getting the wrong end of the stick. However to Dominic it sounded like an awesome adventure. 

The more strange stuff Dominic said, the more Henry started to doubt himself. The world was big and full of wonders, so could there be something to Dominic’s stories? Well, the Hogwarts library was huge, if these things existed, then there would be some mention of them somewhere even if it were only legends. But the grannies really couldn’t come because they were at Hogwarts and the only adults were the teachers who would not try to kill students up in a tree, only tell them to come down and maybe give them detention. It was still pretty early in the year, and Henry didn’t really want to get detention yet. Nick and Atha obviously considered him the sensible one, and he didn’t want to destroy their trust.

But there was no teacher in sight so Henry quickly forgot about the detention again. There remained the woodpecker and the beaver, but beavers lived in rivers and built dams. He hadn’t seen any dams that had to mean that no beavers were around. And Henry wasn’t afraid of woodpeckers. He also didn’t believe in school bullies being a threat. If someone tried to hex them, they’d risk to harm them seriously and that was against the school rules. Nobody would risk expulsion to be mean to some boys who had done nothing to provoke such actions. No, Henry was fairly confident, nothing could harm them up in the tree.

”Really?” asked Henry, excited for a moment so that he swung his feet on the branch to start searching. But then he remembered that books were written by humans and not born on trees. He also had never heard of flying books, and he sunk back on the branch, stretching an arm towards Dominic as he swayed dangerously for a short time. He sighed. For a moment, he had really believed in hatching books. But it was not possible. Dominic was making things up.

Slightly angry at him for getting his hopes up for nothing, he almost said ”No” at the question whether they were friends. But looking in the boy’s hopeful face, his resentment quickly subsided. Surly, he was a nice boy, he had said so himself, and for once it had not been accompanied with any confusing claims. ”Of course we are,” assured him Henry. ”Trees connect, that’s what I always say.” Or at least what he said today for the first time. But it sounded both true and reasonable to Henry. Two persons who climbed up a tree shared common interests, it was perfectly sensible for them to be friends. If he and his friends figured out how to get on the Whomping Willow, he would show Dominic too.

”I’m sure of it,” said Henry. He might never have properly spoken with Amy, but she had appeared nice enough at the banquet. Admittedly, his head had been so full of so many things that he was not quite certain how correct his memories of the evening were. But all people, Hufflepuffs in particular, had been amiable so far, there was no reason for Amy to be the odd one. Dominic was nice when he wasn’t confusing - he was Amy’s cousin - Henry didn’t think he had ever heard that Amy talked about weird things. It was only logical that she’d be nice.

”There’s nothing wrong with books,” said Henry, still determined to defend Ravenclaw. His aunt was the best person in the whole world, and that made Ravenclaw the best house. ”There are much more important things than being cool. Having a family in your house.” He didn’t really understand Dominic’s point anyway. All the houses were great, that had been one of the very first things he had ever learnt. And to have people who were great at studying around all the time was wonderful at a school. Only second to having people who wanted to help you like in Hufflepuff.

”How do you know about these carrots?” Henry asked, finally deciding that he could not just not believe what he was being told. He had to find out how Dominic knew about such things - because it was certainly not from One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.

”My aunt was also not that happy when I was climbing around,” said Henry. ”Though that was when I first used magic. You know, without intending to. I fell and landed alright. But my aunt still doesn’t think it’s a good idea to jump from trees, that’s a bit stupid. But otherwise she’s a great aunt.”

Henry nodded. Elms were fine trees, certainly. But then he stopped his nodding. ”It’s forbidden to go into the Forbidden Forest,” he said, just in time stopping himself from agreeing with Dominic. He was the reasonable one. He had to be. ”It’s in the rules. We could be expelled.”