A Vital Ingredient

Julie stood on the outer edge of the forest, Caesar out and resting lightly in her palm. She had foregone robes for a more ambulatory outfit and her hair was braided back tightly. James was asleep up in her dormitory, under the effects of an animal friendly sleep potion.

The full moon shone brightly over her head on the cloudless night, creating a stark contrast between the white light it shone and the dark shadows of the forest. Julie shifted uncomfortably and fervently hoped that the old teasing tales told to the first years about werewolves really weren't true. In this light, she was willing to doubt nearly anything.

She shifted a little impatiently, wishing that Indiana would get there quickly.

Garbed in black street clothing and with a compact 12-gauge hunting shotgun strapped to his back, Indiana managed to sneak out of the castle before emerging on the grounds. He had been a bit nervous that the house elves might have discovered the Muggle firearm but luckily, it didn't happen. Nonetheless, Indiana was cautious in keeping the weapon under wraps, intending to take with him whenever he was in the Forbidden Forest. Tonight was one night that he felt he needed it.

Heading to the forest, Indiana noticed that Julie was already there.

"Good to see you, Julie." Indiana greeted.

Julie grinned at him. "You too. Hope we don't run into that wraith again," she joked, flexing her neck to the side as she spoke.

The shadows seemed to stretch ominously out of the forest, and Julie rolled her eyes internally at her over-active imagination. It wasn't like everything in the Forest was deadly. Just most.

"Shall we get going?" she asked Indiana.

"Indeed. Don't worry. Anything dangerous that attacks will be eating buckshot first." Indiana stated as he took the compact shotgun from his back. It was already loaded with four additional shells to follow the one in the chamber and the youth had ten rounds in his side pocket in case he needed to reload. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to shoot at anything but things are unpredictable.

"Well, let's go." Indiana spoke, taking the lead. "Eyes and ears."

Julie bit back her tongue at the sight of the gun, if only to stop herself from asking if had brought any silver bullets along. Facetiousness wouldn't get her everywhere after all.

She dropped in behind him, heading into the dark trees. Her eyesight stubbornly refused to adjust after a few minutes, so she used a partial transfiguration she'd been learning and gave herself cats' eyes. As an afterthought she transfigured her ears to those of a cats' as well. Extra hearing and seeing couldn't hurt.

"Same spells as last time if we get really deep?" she asked Indiana in a low voice, thinking of all the disillusionments and silencing charms from their last venture into the forest.

"Just the Silencing Charms although Disillusionment Charms are also good too. I just hope they don't bother to using their sense of smell to locate us." Indiana replied as he held the shotgun with his left hand before using his right hand to take out his wand. He silently cast the Disillusionment and Silencing Charms on himself with the exception of the shotgun, preferring to keep it visible.

Julie nodded as Indiana seemed to blend in with the background. Her enhanced eyesight saw he was a bit fuzzy around the edges if she focused, but probably only because she was expecting him to be. She followed his example, silencing herself and casting the disillusionment.

Same as last time, she charmed the tiny pinprick of green light to follow her at a radius of about a foot, just in case. Julie moved forward and awkwardly attempted to tap Indiana on the shoulder, to speak in his ear. "Do you know where fluxweed grows in here?"

It wasn't that she minded wandering around the Forest aimlessly, but they were here for a reason, and all the times Julie had gone exploring she hadn't paid much attention to the plant life.

"Where ever the moonlight reaches, the Fluxweed will have a slight red glow to them." Indiana whispered back as he kept the shotgun trained at the area ahead of him while keeping his eyes out for hostiles. He moved forward like a patrolling guard with his eyes and ears open to his surroundings, looking for the red glowing Fluxweed.

Julie nodded, then felt a bit foolish. She moved out a little, and scanned the area, searching for a glow. The colour schematics of the cats' eyes were a little confusing the first time she had tried them out, but by now she was reasonably confident she had them figured.

The forest around her was marginally familiar - she'd been here before, but not for a while.

Indiana was moving across the terrain when he noticed a red glow from the corner of his eye. He quickly turned and mentally face-palmed when he saw that it was only a discarded Blood-Pop candy that was reflecting the moonlight.

He continued onwards, hoping to find some Fluxweed that were bathing in the moonlight.

Julie moved softly over the terrain, eyes swivelling around, taking in everything they could. She flashed on a small lollipop in the corner of her eye, but moved over it when it was clear that it wasn't what they were looking for.

She paused. Why was there a lollipop in the forest? Why hadn't the ants carried it off yet? (Julie had seen the giant ants once before, in her fourth year. They were about the size of dogs and had startled her considerably.)

She took off the silencing charm momentarily. "Indiana! Lollipop!" she said, before replacing the charm and heading over to it, nervously looking out for ants.

Indiana stopped and turned towards where he heard Julie's voice before heading towards her position. What was so special about a lollipop? Discarded candy could hardly be anything to take fascination on. Nonetheless, he took off the Silencing Charm.

"Okay. You said lollipop. I'm a bit lost on that." the youth remarked, hoping to hear her elaborate.

Julie removed her own silencing charm, and childishly stuck her tongue out at the vague direction Indiana's voice had come from, knowing full-well he couldn't see it. "Lollipop means that someone's in here with us," she said, eyes roving around constantly. "Stuff like this gets carted off by the insects within minutes of being discarded. I just thought it might be useful to know that we aren't the only things in her walking this way with a sugar tooth and access to sugar."

She fidgeted a little, but when she looked around she saw no sign of movement. "I'm sorry, I'm probably just being antsy," she said, biting her lip.

Indiana face-palmed, wondering on why he didn't think that. Well, he wasn't infallible and his attention had been placed on finding Fluxweed.

"It's fine. No worries." the youth answered before pumping the shotgun. "Now who the heck would be here in the forest this late at night besides us?"

Keeping his eyes open, Indiana looked around for any other signs of another person in the vicinity.

"A vampire?" Julie said dryly, eyeing the blood red lollipop. The bushes off to the side rustled, and a long line of over-large ants emerged, picking up the lollipop and rushing off into the other bushes.

Julie squeaked and leapt back. "I hate those things!" she muttered. "Whoever they are though, they can't see us, and unless they're still lurking they probably have no clue we're here," she said, adding up her inferences in her head to come to a possible course of action. "Maybe we should keep moving and just keep our eyes and ears out for company?" she asked tentatively.

Indiana was a bit taken aback when the large ants appeared to haul the discarded candy away. Noting Julie's statement, he nodded.

"How about you cast the Presence Revealing Spell? The incantation is Homenum Revelio." Indiana suggested while looking around, both hands hold the shotgun tightly.

Julie thumped the heel of her palm against her forehead. "I'm so stupid sometimes!" she muttered. "Homenum Revelio!"

She waited for about a minute, but the spell didn't show any other people near them. She shook her head, belatedly realising that Indiana couldn't see the action. "Nothing human within a kilometre of us."

"Alright then. I guess it's fine for now." Indiana replied before continuing onwards. "Still keep an eye out."

The youth moved onwards across the terrain, looking for the red glow of Fluxweed on the grounds of the forest.

"Planning on it," Julie said grimly, before moving on, the small dot following her. She kept the silencing charm off, feeling it would be better to be able to yell in a hurry if the need arose. The moon was high above her, casting light over the land around her, and Julie searched for a glow to the equivalent of 'red'.

Part of her mind digressed on a tangent about how colours could really be defined, but she put it firmly back on the track of searching for the glow.

Moving through the trees despite the darkness, Indiana caught sight of the moonlight shining through the canopy up ahead before his eyes detected the faint red glow in the thicket. The youth quickly ran towards the source before his assumptions were vindicated.

There, growing near the remains of a dead tree, Indiana saw the glowing red bulbs of Fluxweed that were bathed in the moonlight.

"Found them!" he called out.

Julie cheered and hurried over to the place where she could hear Indiana's voice coming from, a faint glow that ooked to be the red shade they were after emanating from the plants. The small section of plants seemed very healthy.

"Nice!" Julie said, going down on one knee in front of the plants and inspecting them closely.

Placing the shotgun over his back, Indiana took out a jar and a pair of pliers before kneeling down and began cutting the Fluxweed bulbs. He slowly harvested until there weren't anymore left. Yet, the jar wasn't completely full and there would be a need for more.

"Well, I'm game for continuing the search for more Fluxweed. Just need a little more." Indiana spoke. "How about you?"