Beauty of the Kill

[Nitca Petrovsky]

Forbidden. The words made Gryffindors 'daring' enough to cross the line, Slytherins cocky enough to do such, Hufflepuffs stupid enough. But of course the Ravenclaws would also have reason to cross the line and make their way into the forbidden forest if they could get there noses out of a book. Curiosity. Many of the smartest minds were over come by such a simple emotion and had enough courage to actually step into the area known as the Forbidden Forest. Then again, some of them didn’t quite have the fear one may entering a place of which one did not describe, or at least among Ravenclaws, for it proved that they were not just the bookworms that stayed within the castle enjoying their solitude. It was what they were known for, so why bother changing it by saying that you’d gone into the forest full of dangers? Besides, other seemed to come along enough that it was no longer a big deal among the students of Hogwarts anymore, so what would it matter if they put it into words? For other houses it’d be nothing new. Nothing special…

“And so it does not matter.” she muttered to herself lightly as she stroked the bark of a tree at the edge of the mass of trees which marked a naturally dangerous part of Hogwarts. Then again, what wasn’t dangerous about Hogwarts? The students at times attacked each other, the lake should not be swam due to the things the live within it, a tree attacks and even in the Quidditch Pitch one is bound to fall. This was why Nitca had been here before, enjoying solitude that can only be fond in the wilds, a place were a mass was untamed and went on as natural beings with no over thought of pure ’humanly’ rationality. It was beauty. It was something that made her smile even now as she passed the tree, patting it lightly before leaving it behind to possibly find comfort on another tree farther in so that she may watch the lives as they pasted by, hopefully out of sight and out of mind.

Her steps attempted to be light, soft, some what graceful, yet she’d never been one for balance, nor for a good sneak up. So her steps were somewhat clumsy, soft cracks of branches at least every foot or so, nearly tripping over what one could call nothing proving why she’d never be a dancer like her mother, though she wanted to be nothing like the woman anyways, a selfish whore she was. Animals scattered at the sound of her two left feet. At least they were getting better as she went along into the forest, cracking fewer sticks, almost tripping over something instead of something instead of nothing. Though as she near tripped again she forced herself against a tree so that she would not fall to the ground, gasping as she hit the tree harder than she thought she would, the knife which lay sheathed by her hip digging into her side. A painful reminder than she had her favorite object in the world on hand and making her think that falling may actually be the better thing to do next time.

“Yes, don't fall into the tree again... painful thing.” she told herself with a nod was she rubbed her side where the knife was gently. “It’ll hopefully feel better after words.” She smirked lightly as she began to continue her walk, now, with a slight limp, going where she did not know, and how far in, she could barely guess.

____

How long had she been walking on? It seemed like no time had passed and yet her legs began to ache, and wish to give out on her. She’d turn left, right, gone backwards, forwards and every other direction possible to man without wings, and of course she had no idea where she was… No worry had come to her as of yet though, for she knew that she’d find her way out if her thoughts were correct. When she wanted to leave she’d just pick a direction, any direction, and if the thickness of the forest increased, she was going the wrong way, if it thinned, she was on course, if it stayed the same, then she’d just assume she was also going the wrong way…. It made sense that way it was probably how it would play out, but magic and forests were known to play tricks on people, she would not worry until she felt helpless though.

Her legs felt useless yet she continued to walk, her mind wanted to go on, just continue walking as she thought over things, all things that she knew, anything she wished to think of, scientific, anything, randomly. At times her mind would trace over where she was in the forest, she presumed that at the moment she was not to far in, for she did not see so many animals crawling around her, or hear sounds that could from something that could bring death upon her. Sounds that made her skin crawl. And so she just continued, barely noticing that the forest around her was getting thicker, and the sounds within the dark caused by the canopy of leaves were among her once more, though they were distant so had naught to worry about as if yet. Well, even though she had no worries, obviously some animal did, its cries filled her ears, snapping her out of her own little world, her heart skipping a beat as she eyes tried to see the animal in despair.

For a moment she felt frozen as she heard the cries of more than one animal, should she go, walk away? Or should she stay, see what it was and satisfy her growing curiosity? Her breath seemed caught for a slight moment, but then she found herself relaxing, breathing with ease as she brought herself out of that faint moment of fear. She did not need to fear, she had a wand in hand, and she personally did not hold onto life as one should… Or at least that’s how she was at times. Nitca was sure though that the only thing that had gotten to her was the cry… Oh that cry of pain, despair, and the knowing that death was to come! It could shake anyone at the core. Or at least anyone who truly cared about animals. If she would have heard that kind of cry from a human she would have smirked, and remembered the day she saved her life.

There was one last cry and then there was no more… Some of the cries had been weak, as if from a new born. A frown played onto Nitca’s lips as she realized that they’d sounded like the cry of kittens. Curiosity and a bit of her own despair brought her to find where the cries had come from… only to see a meal not finished. Four kittens lay out in the open, dead, half eaten. It was a sad sight which almost made the young girl look away, but something else caught her attention before she could do such. A larger cat laid within the mess of kittens, most likely the mother who was hanging onto life for some reason, even though the blood around its neck proved that it could not stay alive for much longer, and if it did, it wouldn’t get anywhere… It’d merely just suffer here in the place where its kittens were slaughtered.

The right thing to do was clear within her mind; she did not want the cat to suffer here... She'd give it more mercy than that she'd give a fellow human, more than she'd given to her own parents who she had killed to save herself and her sister. And so it was almost with to much ease that she took the knife from her hip and walked over to the cat, kneeling beside it... Stoking its brown fur which was now matted with dirt and blood. What had down this to these cats? She wondered and looked around for a moment, seeing if she could any hint of its presence, but she seemed safe for the moment. Her eyes went back to the cat, sympathetic and nearly teary as she brought up her knife. "Rest well mother cat, may you and your kittens find a better life else where..."

She slammed her knife down into the skull of the cat, killing it instantly, as she ignored the crack she'd heard. Though it almost wasn't so quick... as she had reached the skull another cry had almost stopped her, but her hand had kept going, knowing instantly she had to finish the cat off. What had made that cry though? Was there a kitten still alive? Yes, there was. Nitca found it with a little bit of difficulty, but it seemed that the kitten had been able to hide under a whole under the trunk of a tree... Out of sight and out of mind like she'd planned to be when she came into this forest....

The kitten was a beautiful male, his eyes yellow, nearly golden, complimented his dark brown fur with darker streaks running along his back. Luckily he seemed just old enough not to need his mother's milk anymore... Luckily he'd not met the same fate as his siblings.... Nitca held him close as she closed her eyes, attempting to stop herself from crying even in the least over this scene before her. It was life. It could not have been helped even if she so wished it... Fate. But it didn't stop her from feeling bad for this kitten, nor its siblings... Nor its mother who still had Nitca's knife in her head.

"Oh the miseries of life...." she whispered lightly.

[Lucas Oldfield]

Who had been the first Slytherin to enter the Forbidden Forest? To be honest, it's not like you could keep track after a while, but no one would be surprised if Scorpius Malfoy's name came up, and yet was it true? Lucas had been second, he knew that much, but you don't get credit for being the second one, do you? It didn't matter much to him, he could navigate the forest easily, but he still had his wand with him, just incase. Although it was never in his hand, he was to prideful to look like a cautious little Gryffindor. Besides, he'd come and gone so many times, he didn't fear the forest at all, had he even feared it before? He'd probably deny it, even thouh he would be lying if he did, but how could you tell? Lucas was wonderful at keeping a straight face, and also good at keeping his eyes cold and filled with lack of entertainment. Then again, who could ever read the eyes of a Slytherin? However, if you could read the eyes of the Slytherin Prince, then you could probably read the eyes of anyone, anywhere, at any time. Needless to say, Lucas did hate Scorpius for being the Malfoy kid, but it's not like he had control over it. He was stuck in the background, just like everyone else, what did you expect from the Malfoy line?

'Nothing more and nothing less then what Scorp--' his mental thought was cut off when he slammed right into a tree, and there was no time to react quick enough. He felt his back slam into the ground, and on one of the root as well, and it dug into his back, causing an uncmfortable arch in his back. He lay there, stunned and rather embarressed to say the least. It wasn't often he got caught off guard, let alone off guard and unbalanced. He was pretty damn graceful, and that apparently wasn't the case when he was deep in thought. He would probably walk through fire and not notice, unless the fire cause onto what he was wearing and set him on fire, then he would probably notice... at some point. But this all paled in comparison to te fact he did run into a tree and he hoped to a God he wasn't sure existed, that no one was around to see the Slytherin boy actually get beat down... and by a tree. So, with whatever was left of his pride, he got up and brushed himself off, trying to get rid of all the evidence he could. He was trying so hard to get his appearance right, he forgot he could probably use his wand for a few things, but nope, it was a must that he got his hair right and that it fell in place. This was his hair after all, so, the world stopped. Why wouldn't it?

'There...' he said with a sigh of relief before he continues walking, although this time he stopped thinking and paid attention to the area before him, so he didn't slam into another tree. He'd probably die of humiliation if it happened twice in the same day, if not the same hour. However, everything stopped when he heard the cries. His movements, his breathing, everything about him was still. He listened, listened closely until the cries died away, leaving the eerie silence of the forest left in it's place. He wasn't afraid, so he re-direct himself towards the area he had heard the pain-filled cries. He didn't take much care to be quiet, so he had twigs snapping underneath his feet, but he wasn't tripping over anything. He was graceful, very graceful, he almost made it look easy, which for him, it was. Although, he didn't think about sneaking up on the scene so he came through and stopped only to realize there was a girl... and not a girl from his House either. His curious expression changed. His lips now held a rather seductive smirk and his eyes glimmered, although with what, they didn't say. He had his hands in his jeans pockets, with a simple button-up black shirt. His brown hair was restored to perfection, and his brown eyes didn't even look at the dead kittens, and mother cat, that now littered the forest floor. His eyes were on Nitca and the kitten she held in her arms, although he could care less about the kittens and the horrific scene around him.

'Well, well, well. What did you do? Did the kittens scare you?' he said, with sarcasm dripping off of each word he said. Each word had an edge to it, and nothing was said nicely. He may like his females, but he wasn't much for the braniacs, they were always so dang smart. Don't get him wrong, he was a wonderful student-- with an ego problem-- but the Ravenclaws always seemed to surpass him anyway, and that tended to get annoying after a while, so now they were just fun to torment and annoy until they were ready to hex him. And this was exactly what he was planning to do to her. She looked as if it was her first time in the forest, which meant she might not know the way out, and that was even better if she couldn't, unless the forest turned on him, but he was ready if it did.

[Nitca Petrovsky]

She’d been here many times, in many different states of mind, in different weathers. It was a bit of a comfort zone to get away from others… It was a place where she could see death every time she walked in, and could be left thinking about it throughout the night. But she’d never seen a death like this, no… Not the killings of kittens, not the slowly ending gasps of a mother cat as she looked upon her dead kittens. What had done this? It was easy for something to have the heart to do it, especially with how evil some of the creatures to do here, not that it was their fault… They’d just been made that way. She merely wished to know the cause of death… The cause of such pain. To hate such a being would be to easy though, even if she understood how nature worked, how anything worked, the fittest would most likely to survive, while the weaker were left to die. It was life, but one couldn’t help but get to emotional about it.

Her breath caught as she heard something approaching, tempted to reach for her knife so that she could quickly get it out of the cat’s head and throw it at whoever was coming… But she didn’t. She just had faith that it wasn’t something that would attack her, nor the thing that had ended these cats. So her eyes stayed shut as she held the kitten that stayed still when she’d first picked him up, but now he seemed comfortable enough to be a bit restless. If it felt no real danger, as it seemed to now, since she was sure it could sense it better than she could, she would not fear anything that came near. Nitca would not let it down though, not around here so that it may wonder what happened to its family, why they did not move… If the kitten even thought that way. It would not be kind to let it roam either way.

Nitca couldn’t help but smirk at even the first words of the male. It was obvious what his house was, just by the voice, how he said it practically just screamed Slytherin. One would of course walk up at this moment looking to seem almighty; it was why it was hard not to love the little bastards. Some just knew how to press your buttons which Nitca enjoyed, because well, she didn’t have many to push. Her high tolerance kept her mind cool and calm, and sometimes left the other rather annoyed. Though of course she had her moments, everyone had their moments, but her’s were rare.

“Obviously not if you can tell the difference between fear and sadness,” she said simply actually getting into a better mood with the coming of this boy. She looked at him with her icy blue eyes, a faint smile on her lips. “Which an arrogant Slytherin like yourself wouldn’t be able to be able to tell the difference. No, the kittens did not scare me one bit dear sir, thank you for your concern.” Her eyes narrowed in a sweeter way, not cruel or showing the least bit of offense as she stood up with the kitten in had and faced the boy. “Oh, but I do hope that you aren’t just using cruelty towards me to distract yourself from you own fear of this sight. It’s a sad sight, I know, but we must face it head on.” She held the kitten in one arm as the other swept before her, inviting the young man to look at it. “Look, and perhaps I can help comfort your own fears of this scene.” Her voice sounded almost sincere, but of course it wasn’t, she was trying to get to him, before he even got close to getting to her.