Luna Lovegood and the Forbidden Forest

The moonlight reflected off the surface of the lake as Luna Lovegood opened the castle door and slipped quietly outside. She ran quickly down the steps and stopped in the shadows at the bottom to survey the grounds. Owls flew back and forth far overhead, but otherwise all was quiet. Luna looked toward Hagrid’s hut. No sound from that direction either. She hoped she wasn’t too late.

Luna was momentarily distracted by the sight of the Whomping Willow. It was silent now, but she’d heard stories of the havoc it had caused on her first night at Hogwarts. The stories had been passed around school and exaggerated; one version had it that several Gryffindors had hijacked a Muggle airliner and flown it to Hogwarts, in an attempt to crash it into one of the castle’s towers, but the tree had captured the plane and saved the students inside from horrible doom. But Luna had heard the truth from another first year girl, the sister of one of the students involved. It was two Gryffindor second year boys, and they’d got hold of a flying Muggle automobile and flown it to school -- something about missing the train, that detail wasn’t really clear. Apparently they’d found controlling the car harder than they’d anticipated, and they’d crashed into the tree, which had hurried to take revenge by wrecking the car and even breaking one of the boys’ wands.

Luna slipped her hand into her pocket to be sure her wand was there. She’d had it since she was seven years old and it was her most-prized possession. Most possessions didn’t mean much to Luna. In fact, she’d already misplaced several items she’d brought with her to Hogwarts, and she’d been there less than two weeks. But her wand was special. Her mother had bought it for her and taught her to use it before she had died. It was nine inches long and made of willow, with the heartstring of a Chinese Fireball dragon at its core. The relatively short length made it the ideal wand for a young witch’s hands. Most wizarding parents didn’t allow their children to have a wand until it was time for them to go away to school, but Luna’s parents had never held much with such conventions. Her mother had taught her lots of magic that many of her school peers hadn’t yet learned.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Luna made her way silently toward Hagrid’s hut, keeping to the shadows. Her heart beat excitedly. She wasn’t scared of going into the forest alone, but she knew she was unlikely to find her way if Hagrid had already set out. She’d hoped to be able to follow him, but it had taken her a while to get out of the castle without being seen. Mrs. Norris had been prowling around, and Professor Sinistra had stopped Luna to ask if she wanted to accompany her to the Astronomy Tower for some star-gazing. The teachers -- well, not all, but many of them -- seemed to like Luna and offered small favors they seldom offered to the other students. Favors like passes to the restricted section of the library. Not big favors like forays into the forbidden forest. Luna knew she’d be in trouble if she was caught tonight, but she just had to see this. Few humans had the chance to witness such an event as would occur tonight.

The continued silence almost convinced Luna she’d come too late to follow Hagrid. But then, she heard his deep booming voice calling for his boarhound, Fang. Securing the dog to a leash, Hagrid slung a large bag over his shoulder and set off into the forest. Luna followed closely enough not to lose her way but not so closely as to be spotted by the gameskeeper or his hound. Hagrid whistled rather tunelessly to himself as he walked deeper into the forest. After a few minutes he left the path and stopped in a clearing some distance away. Luna crept to the edge of the clearing and hid behind a tree to watch.

Lying in the clearing was one of the Hogwarts thestrals, clearly in some distress. Hagrid knelt down and spoke soothingly to the large, reptilian horse, and it seemed to know he was there to help. Not it, she. A female thestral, about to become a mother. She’d overheard Hagrid mention the imminent birth to Professor Flitwick at the staff table, and she’d watched from her window in Ravenclaw Tower as Hagrid made nightly trips into the forest to check on the pregnant winged horse. Now the moment for the birth had come, and she was here to see it!

Hagrid tied Fang to a tree and returned to the soon-to-be-mother, speaking soothingly again. Another thestral appeared on the other side of the clearing, and Hagrid offered it some raw meat from his bag. Then he bent over the horse on the ground, and soon she started screeching. It was a very uncomfortable sound, but it didn’t last that long. There was one last, loud cry, and then the horse lowered her head to the ground wearily. Hagrid moved to pat her neck and Luna could see the young foal. It was beautiful! It was lying on its side, sticky and wet, and breathing hard. It’s legs and head were moving but its wings seemed glued to its side. Luna had read that the wings remained like this for several days.

The foal pushed hard with its back legs and ended up with its rump in the air and its face in the leaves on the forest floor. Then it tipped over onto its side again. The next attempt brought it to its feet for almost two seconds before it again fell over. After several attempts it managed an ungainly walk toward its mother, where it collapsed and rested for a while.

Hagrid seemed satisfied that he’d accomplished his purpose, untied Fang and started back toward his hut. Luna stayed to watch the new family -- the mare’s mate had joined her to admire the new arrival. She lost track of time watching them lick the new baby, and the foal’s first attempt to nurse. Luna wished she could stay and watch the new foal’s first attempt at flight, but she knew that wouldn’t happen for a couple of weeks yet. She wondered if she’d be able to find her way back to this spot again two weeks from now. Thinking of finding her way caused Luna to realize something that had escaped her until now -- she wasn’t sure she knew her way back to the castle from here!

Heart beating a bit more rapidly, Luna decided it was time to attempt the trip back. She walked back to where she expected the path to be. “Lumos,” she muttered when she was far enough from the thestrals that she felt they wouldn’t notice the light. The light didn’t reveal any hint of the path, however. Luna stumbled over a tree root and almost fell. She still wasn’t scared, but she remembered her father’s frequent comments about her lack of ability to find her way in unfamiliar locations. She stumbled on for quite some time, but there was still no sign of the path. She looked back over her shoulder but she was no longer sure which direction she’d come from, nor which direction Hagrid had taken when he’d left the thestrals.

CRASH! A loud noise startled Luna, and it was quickly followed by other noises: sniffing and panting, like a pack of wild dogs, only much louder than any dogs Luna had ever heard. The noises came from above, as if the dogs could fly, or they were much taller than normal dogs. Luna ran away from the sounds. Whatever was making the noises was traveling fast, faster than Luna. She could feel hot breath coming from above. Finally, she hid behind a big tree and turned to look. Raising her wand, she could see three enormous heads, panting and salivating. These dogs were enormous, but not very smart -- they couldn’t seem to decide which way to proceed around the tree that was in front of them. Two of them wanted to go one way and one wanted to go the other way, and something was keeping them from dividing and each proceeding as it desired. As Luna looked, she realized it wasn’t three dogs, but one enormous three-headed dog. She took advantage of its confusion to turn and run some more.

After a while she heard the dog behind her again, gaining, its indecision apparently conquered. Luna still had no idea where the path was, and it seemed she might not have a chance to find out. She stumbled over another tree root and fell to her knees. As she got back to her feet she heard a new sound. More crashing and breaking of foliage, but this sounded more like a machine than an animal. She saw lights glowing, like large eyes, approaching straight toward her. She moved to the side and saw that the lights were not eyes but the headlights of a Muggle automobile. Its engine revved slightly. “Nice automobile! Can you help me?” Luna didn’t find it all strange to speak to the car, and it responded immediately by moving closer and opening its passenger door. Luna jumped into the seat and the car took off, this time in reverse. After backing up for about two hundred feet, it wheeled around and sped off, seeming to follow a path. After only a couple of minutes, the car crashed out onto the Hogwarts lawn, stopped, and opened its door again. Luna got out, politely thanked the car for its help, and set off across the dark grass toward the door of the castle.