insert boring unoriginal title here (Aoife)

The castle, with it's huge, magnificent towers and lights. The lake, rippling and illuminated with color by the setting sun. The same tree that Hunter had always retreated to when he needed solitude, green and full of life, it's leaves rustling lightly in the breeze. The hot summer air had cooled considerably as evening settled across the castle. It was calm and serene and the exact same way that it had always been. So how was it that, as Hunter leaned back against the wide, familiar trunk, his life was so different now? Broken, destroyed, ugly. It felt wrong that despite how twisted his own world had become, Hogwarts was the same happy, perfect place. It felt as though the castle should be crumbling, the water dirty and lifeless, the forest in the distance set aflame - all to match the shadow that had been cast over his life. But instead, the scene before him was peaceful and familiar and completely unchanging.

Hunter let his head fall back against the tree and stared out over the lake, his elbows resting against his knees. His eyes drifted across the water, and came to land on the trees beyond. The forest was huge, expanding on as far as the eye could see - but despite it's title, it didn't seem very terrifying. It just seemed dark and quiet, casting a shadow over the lake as the sun sank behind the leaves. Hunter hadn't explored the forest before - not really. He'd wandered between the trees on the outskirts of it, but had never really delved any deeper than that. He'd never felt any need to - a forest was a forest. Boring and full of trees. He wasn't ever that keen to waste his time wandering through the woods for nothing. Though, now, it didn't seem like a bad idea. Nobody really went in the forest, which meant Hunter could probably avoid contact with people for ages in there if he wanted.

But his attention was pulled from the distant trees by the quiet sound of someone walking across the grass. Hunter sighed, and turned with every intention of telling them to go away in the most unpleasant manner he could think of. But then he realized that the nearing person had a heap of red hair on top of her head, and the sharp rise in his irritation settled a bit. He wondered for a moment where she was coming from. Dinner had probably just ended - Hunter had skipped it - so maybe she was just getting some fresh air before she had to be stuck in the castle for the rest of the night. "Hey," he said, offering her a small smile as she neared him. "Did you come to bring me food?" he asked halfheartedly, at least attempting a joke like he might have done before. "You're almost out past curfew, you know."

Godmodded a bit I guess but I figured you wouldn't care, didn't know what else to put, I was going to start it actually in the forest but couldn't figure out how so they can just go there next.

Aoife had got bored at dinner for the lack of interesting people or events, so finished a couple of potatoes and left before a lot of the other students. She planned on going outside for a bit while it wasn’t completely dark. The weather was fairly nice for September, but she still felt the cold hit her like a brick wall (and she had walked into many brick walls in her time) and instinctively wrapped her robes around herself tighter. From a vague guess at the time, she didn't have long before curfew - but if she was a few minutes late back to the castle, nobody would care. There were no teachers left who were strict enough to care, and older students didn’t give a shit about anything. Moody teenagers. Although, she felt herself slipping into those habits quite often nowadays. And she was starting to think that teenagerdom was inevitable, however late it hit.

As she walked through the grass somewhere in the grounds. she saw a familiar figure leaning against a tree in the distance, with imperfect hair and a sad expression. And she didn’t like sad expressions at all. She hesitated for a moment, trying to decide whether to go over or not. Nothing she could say would help. If she felt devastated by Jack’s death, his emotions were unimaginable to her. But she hadn’t talked to him at all this term, so she would have to say something eventually, either an apology that wouldn’t help anything or an attempt at comforting him which wouldn’t help anything. Shrugging her complicated and unnecessary thoughts away, she started to go over in that direction towards his rather nice tree.

His attitude when she turned up was weird. Not what she had expected. First of all, he smiled, even though it wasn’t like he used to smile, and then he actually talked and didn’t hit anything. “Hi,” she returned hesitantly, and laughed at his typical remark about food. “I have some haribos, if you want them?” Like usual, there was a huge pack of tangfastics in her pocket. That was the good thing about robes. They had huge pockets to store loads of packs of sweets. Curfew? She gave him an unimpressed look. “Do you really think I care about curfew?” She didn’t know what to say then, so for once didn’t say anything. Should she mention Jack? Or would that be stupid while he was in this mood? But then, she spotted the trees of the forbidden forest nearby. “Hey, do you want to see a unicorn?” she blurted out.

Hunter could hear the uncertainty in Aoife's voice as she greeted him - it didn't surprise him. Nobody knew how to act around him. He didn't have the luxury of choosing who to tell and when to tell them, like Ariel did. Maybe if he did, he would be able to enjoy time with his friends - at least to an extent. But everyone knew, and the dynamic with his friends was strange now. He'd hardly talked to Ariel, aside from work. He spent time with Seren but refused to let her in. And when he did talk to them, he knew that they were careful around him. Nobody wanted to say the wrong thing. They were worried about depressing him or sending him into a violent fit of rage. Though, he didn't help matters, because he spent most of his time avoiding them as well.

But he didn't avoid Aoife - at least, not as adamantly. He knew it was partly because she was effected more personally by his brother's death than the rest of his friends. But it was also probably due to the fact that Aoife wasn't tactful enough to worry about saying the right or wrong things around him - at least, not for very long. "I figured as much - tangfastics probably? They still aren't as good as starmix," Hunter told her, though they were admittedly both pretty good. "Since when did you become generous and shit, anyway?" he asked, holding his hand out and waiting for her to pour some sweets into it. "You normally hoard your candy like it's gold."

Hunter glanced up at her for a moment and then shrugged. "Guess that makes two of us," he agreed. Very little mattered anymore, and curfew didn't exactly make the cut. A small silence stretched out between them for a few moments then - something that never happened with Aoife. He glanced up at her expectantly, pretty sure that she couldn't stay quiet for long. But when she did speak, Hunter had definitely not been expecting the words that came out of her mouth.

"A unicorn?" he repeated, staring up at her incredulously. "Have you been keeping one of those in your dorm this whole time? You know, unicorns probably need more space than that," he told her sarcastically. But as he said it, he remembered that years ago, he'd gotten her a toy unicorn as a birthday present. Because she had always talked about that one unicorn. Mustafo, or whatever. Hunter had never believed that Mustafo was real. "Do you mean your imaginary friend that you always talked about when we were twelve?" he asked her, an amused look on his face. But then, Hunter pushed himself into a standing position and shrugged. "Yeah, what the hell. Let's go."

After shoving a handful in her mouth, she held up the packet. “Yeah!” she grinned. “Tanfastics are the BEST, actually! Starmix are so plain, but tangfastics are so sugary and sour! You’re just too boring and uncool for tangfastics!” Aoife definitely should be on some advert for haribos. She’d nail it. Maybe not, she had better career options practically right in front of her. “Excuse you!” she exclaimed, half jokingly. “I’m the most generous person I know! I share sweets! Not haribos, obviously, they’re all mine.” That made Hunter special, because he got some of her tangfastics and she only had eleven packs. After those were gone, she probably wouldn’t have any more till CHRISTMAS! She poured a few more than she had planned into Hunter’s hand, sighing dramatically.

She wished she was more normal, sometimes. In circumstances like this, she shouldn’t be grinning and giggling and being enthusiastic. It was mean. To Jack’s memory. And to Hunter. True, she shouldn’t be acting all depressed, but she felt even more hyper than usual. It was probably a mix of all the sweets she’d eaten and not really knowing how else to act. And her instinct. She was instinctively hyper. A lot of people had told her that, but what was she supposed to do about it? Pretend to be boring and normal? No chance.

Aoife scowled. People were so narrow-minded and unimaginative. Why couldn’t they be more like unicorns? “The only unicorn I keep in my dorm is MINI MUSTACHIO,” she said, as though it was obvious. Although, hadn’t Hunter been the one to get her Mini Mustachio? “He’s not imaginary! He lives in the Forbidden Forest! I met him! Ask Evan and Kynan, they were there!” Team Mustachio forever. Even though one member was hateable. “Shun the non-believer. SHUN him!” She decided not to go on more - after all, she could imagine the expression on his face when she introduced him to Mustachio.

“Come on then!” To Mustachio! She led the way towards the Forbidden Forest. “Remember unicorns like female humans better than male humans, so you should back off at first. And don’t make noise, you git!”

Just as he'd suspected, Hunter was right. Aoife quickly slipped into her old habit of disagreeing with him and telling him he was stupid and less cool than her and everything. Just like she always had, ever since the very first day he'd met her. It was almost impossible to think back to that day - to actually believe that he had once been so small and happy. Looking up at Aoife, a wave of jealousy washed through him. She'd gotten older and prettier, but listening to her talk - seeing the way her mouth turned up into that I'm always right and you never are kind of grin - it was easy to see that she hadn't changed a bit. She was the same girl that Hunter had walked in on, years ago, dancing in the common room like nobody else in the world mattered but her. And Hunter - somewhere along the way, Hunter had lost himself completely. The world had made sure of that.

He wanted so badly to return her enthusiasm - to feel, just for one moment, as carefree as she looked. But instead, a sense of bitterness swept over him. Because life's unfairness had never stared him so directly in the face. Why should he be put through this - why should his family be put through this - while so many people, like Aoife, stood before him, completely untouched by misery. But even as he thought it, he regretted it. Because it wasn't Aoife's fault that Jack was dead. And never would he wish the misery he was experiencing on her, instead of himself. Aoife could be a pain in the ass, but she had an innocence about her that put Hunter at ease. And it would be a sin for something like that to be destroyed.

He tried to grin back at her as she explained that he was too boring to like tangfastics, but all he managed in the end was another tight smile. "Yeah, guess so," he managed to say dryly, watching the candy fall into his hand. "Thanks." Hunter popped one into his mouth out of habit, but took a longer time chewing it than normal. He didn't even think that it was possible for Haribos to be unappetizing. Still, since Aoife had given them to him, he risked a few more, listening to her talk. "See, I knew you liked me more than you let on," he told her. "You give me haribos all the time - or, at least, you let me get away with stealing them all the time. And that's more than you can say for most people."

Mustachio! That was it! Not Mustafo. "You still have that thing?" Hunter asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "I thought for sure you would've set it on fire or something when we weren't talking." Not imaginary. Hunter wasn't so sure about that, but he followed her anyway. He rolled his eyes as she started to shun him. "Very funny. I know what that's from, loser, I'm muggleborn too, remember?" Hunter told her. Everyone had seen the Charlie the Unicorn videos. And pretty much everyone could agree by now that they were stupid. "Doesn't like guys, stay back, got it." It wouldn't matter, because Hunter was ninety percent sure they weren't going to actually be seeing a unicorn. As they reached the edge of the forest, the sun had sunk mostly behind the trees, casting a shadow over the grounds. "Hope you aren't afraid of the dark," he commented, nudging her jokingly with his elbow. He glanced uncertainly at her then, having no clue how she intended to find this mysterious creature that she kept talking about.

Aoife wasn’t a total dumb ginger like a lot of people thought - at least, she could manage to notice the occasional thing. Like how everyone suddenly acted around Hunter. Obviously she felt like she should be the same way, cautious and especially nice, because of everything he’d been through, but that was impossible. But she felt like people should act normally. Otherwise they would soon anger Hunter and he would storm off to punch an innocent wall (even though he should know by now that throwing a chair was less painful and more productive), because he was like that. Anyway, she was going to be nice but normal around him because she reckoned he deserved that, at least. She’d never lost someone so close to her as Jack had been to Hunter, so she couldn’t exactly relate. And people said you couldn’t understand the pain of loss before you experienced it. But she imagined it was pretty painful.

She felt a pang of guilt when she saw him smile like that. She obviously wasn’t doing well enough at being normal. “Shh, don’t tell anyone,” she whispered mockingly. “They can’t know I like you!” She threw a haribo up in the air and dived to catch it in her mouth, cheering happily when she managed it. “Maybe I’m just getting too lazy to stop you,” she added. “But I do owe you a lot because of all that butterbeer.” Not that she cared what she owed him. But it was reasoning which vaguely made sense. “Most people don’t give me food or butterbeer, so I don’t give them haribos in return!”

“No!” she said, outraged. “Why should the unicorn suffer for you being a git?!” Of course, the inanimate object animal’s feelings had to come first. But burning it would be a bit weird, even if she didn’t care about Mini Mustachio. “I don’t care if you’ve seen Charlie the Unicorn! I’m still going to shun you, stupid!” He wasn’t allowed to come to Candy Mountain with her. She was going alone. “Muggleborns are the best, though. We get the best of both worlds!” Muggle world, with its amazing sweets and Charlie the Unicorn, and wizarding world with its quidditch and ice-cream and Hogwarts and all the other awesome stuff.

Afraid of the dark? As if! Aoife smiled sarcastically at him, before taking out her wand and muttering, “Lumos!”. Yay, light! Still, she couldn’t see anything but trees. Shrugging her doubts off, she charged into the forest, sure that eventually they would come across her favourite unicorn. Unicorns ran around everywhere, didn’t they? And this forest could hardly be that big! Just a few metres of trees, most likely. “I don’t think Mustachio will like you,” she said honestly. “But you never know - maybe he’s open minded. I know that he’s pretty cool. Maybe too cool for you, you starmix-lover.” She wasn’t going to let it go until he admitted that tangfastics were the best type of haribos!

Hunter snorted in amusement, a more sincere grin spreading across his face as Aoife told him that nobody could know. "Finally, she admits it!" he exclaimed, laughing slightly. "You know, even though that's a terrible, rotten lie," he started, glancing over at her as she caught a haribo in her mouth and acted like it was the coolest thing in the world. "I don't think you've ever said that before out loud." There was a hint of pride in his voice as he pointed it out, as if he'd won a game that she hadn't known they'd been playing. "And that was pathetic, by the way, try this one," he told her, sidestepping a few paces away from her and tossing one of his own haribos in an arc through the air for her to catch in her mouth. They were walking, so it might miss her completely or hit her in the face.

"You're right though, you do owe me for all the butterbeer," he agreed. "I don't think you've quite made up for it yet - butterbeer is more valuable than haribos, after all." Popping another one in his mouth, he glanced around as they crossed the treeline, the canopy of the leaves above them instantly darkening their surroundings. "I can't use butterbeer to my advantage anymore, though, because now everybody has it. Luckily, I've upgraded," Hunter said, glancing over at Aoife with an mock-innocent look, which quickly faded into a mischievous smirk. "I stole three more bottles of firewhiskey," he announced proudly. "One of them is even full." Normally, the bottles he grabbed were the ones that the bartend was already pouring from. They were a piece of cake to take, because they just sat on the bar. But Hunter had dared to go a step further, and had snuck behind the bar to take a full bottle from underneath.

"You're right, what was I thinking?" he replied sarcastically as she got all offended about her stupid unicorn toy. Then, without really thinking about it, the next words slipped out. "Do you still have our contract?" he asked, his voice completely casual. And once he'd asked it, he didn't even wish he hadn't. It was a simple, almost joking question - and it had been years. Still, he couldn't help the slight curiosity that followed.

Hunter raised an eyebrow as Aoife lit up her wand, and didn't bother to light up his own. "If you aren't afraid of the dark, why do you need the light?" he asked her. "Won't it scare away the absolutely real and not imaginary unicorn that we're looking for?" He fell into silence for a moment as they walked further into the trees, and when he turned to look back he was surprised to find that he couldn't see the open grounds anymore. "I've never been in here this far," he admitted. Then, to his left, Hunter heard a stick crack, and Hunter felt himself flinch in surprise - the moment he'd done it, he wished he hand't, and glanced over at Aoife to see if she'd noticed. She'd be the first one to make fun of him for being afraid in the forest. He rolled his eyes at her when she said Mustachio wouldn't like him. "It's not like he'd be the first, is it?"

Aoife shook her head, suddenly regretting saying that. She wasn't going to hear the end of it now. But he seemed to realise it was a lie, so it was fine. But really, she didn’t hate Hunter all the time. Just some of the time. And hardly any of the time this year because she had so much sympathy for him which she would feel really awkward actually expressing. “Probably not, I usually don’t say weird emotional stuff like that out loud.” She smiled. A smile which got very competitive when he chucked a haribo in the air. She had to dive forwards to even get close to it, but it bounced off her shoulder and ended up on the floor. “Bad throw!” she insisted. All Hunter’s fault, of course. Everything was Hunter’s fault. She considered chucking one at him in retaliation but that would be a waste of precious haribos, which she didn’t have too many of, so she just stuck her tongue out like a five year-old.

She wasn’t sure whether or not to argue with that. Haribos were amazing obviously, but maybe butterbeer was even better. “Whatever, I’ve made up for it with really cool birthday and Christmas presents!” She was great at present-giving. “Yeah, I guess,” she shrugged. “But you could still bribe people with it! And does that mean haribos are more valuable now?” Haribos were muggle sweets and not everyone had access to them! Then again, nobody really seemed to appreciate haribos as much as she did. The proud look on his face when he announced that he’d stolen three bottles of firewhiskey made her laugh. “Well done Hunter, you’re a thief!” she said sarcastically. “One day, they’ll catch you and take you to wizard prison and I’ll laugh.” She paused. “But I’ll pay you for some. In haribos.” Just for the sake of trying firewhiskey.

“I don’t think you were thinking anything,” she smiled. “I don’t think there’s ANYTHING in your head.” Then she got a random, unexpected question and she hid a scowl. “Er… I dunno.” Really, she did know. It was at home, in a box underneath her bed, where she kept a lot of things, mainly stuff she wanted to keep hidden from her sister. But she wasn’t going to tell Hunter that. It would only inflate his ego even more. “What about you?” Maybe Hunter had punched a hole in his or something.

“Obviously so we don’t run into trees,” she said, rolling her eyes like it was the most obvious thing ever. “It’s way too dark so see anything, stupid. And unicorns aren’t afraid of light, don’t you know anything? Especially not Mustachio.” Okay, so she’d met Mustachio when he was injured and bleeding and couldn’t run away, but she was sure he was brave and strong and amazing. “No, me either, but it can’t be that big, can it?” Aoife grinned. From outside, it looked like a small forest. Which meant it was a small forest. She giggled when she saw him jump. “Who’s scared of the dark now?” Hunter. Not like he’d be the first? What was that supposed to mean? Pretty much everyone liked Hunter. With the very occasional exception.

Ignoring whatever she was saying, Hunter snorted when she dove for the haribo and missed it. "Yeah, right," he replied as she insisted that it was a bad throw. "Last try," he said, "Because I'm not wasting all of my haribos on you." A second later, he'd tossed up another haribo for her. She'd probably miss it again and blame it on him. Oh well. "Yeah, I'd say haribos rank higher than butterbeer now," Hunter agreed. "Because they're a muggle candy, which means that only a few of us are able to get them, and have to bring them all the way from home and make them last." He grinned at her when she complimented him on his thievery. "They won't catch me," he insisted. "And I've got a very good, secret hiding place that you would be jealous of, if you knew. But I won't tell you." The shrieking shack. Coolest hiding place ever. "And you might have to start being nicer to me, in addition to the haribos, if you want some. My services do not come cheap!"

Aoife was wrong there. There was plenty in his head. Too much. Which was why he was out here, traipsing around in the dark forest with her looking for an imaginary unicorn. Trying not to let his decent mood falter, he retorted with a sarcastic tone. "Yeah, well, what's in your head, then? Probably sheep and unicorns and not much else." Well, Hunter hadn't thought his question was that awkward. Not now, after so much time. But apparently Aoife did, and she gave him a pretty not-straightforward answer which Hunter wasn't sure if he believed. But whether she still had it or didn't, if she was going to answer like that, then so was he. "I lost it ages ago," he lied smoothly, shrugging. "Just thought it might be funny to see it - though your drawing skills probably haven't improved much."

He glared at Aoife when she laughed at him. "I'm not scared," he retorted, rolling his eyes. "And speaking of your imaginary unicorn friend, where is he?" Hunter was pretty sure they hadn't come across any unicorns yet. "And I'm thinking that this place might be a little bigger than you thought," he added. "We lost sight of the grounds a while ago." After a moment of silence, in which Hunter almost walked into a tree, he sighed and pulled out his wand as well, which he surprisingly had on him. "Lumos," he muttered, combining his light with Aoife's so that they could see a bit better. Why the hell was she always right?