Some day in March:

So I asked Ed if he'd like to go for a walk, and, surprisingly, he said he would.

"Fed up of studying?"I asked.

"Absolutely,"he answered,"I'm always fed up of studying!"

"Why don't you study something you enjoy?"I suggested.

Ed frowned,"studying isn't meant to be enjoyed. It's work! That's what studying is! You have to actually put in effort!"

I went quiet. Ed is always judging us for not putting in enough effort when it comes to studying. 

We walked around the edge of the castle walls, from up there we could see the little woodland where the Foxhole Chamber is.

"Where are we going, anyway?"Ed asked.

"Over there,"I said, pointing to the small woods.

"Why do you want to go THERE, for?"Ed asked.

"Maybe I need some leaping toadstool caps?"I said.

"That's not even the best place to find them,"Ed said,"if you need some of them, I know a much better place. It's a bit far away, though."

"Well, I'm going where I'm going,"I said.

Ed followed, looking unimpressed.

"A very interesting walk, I must say,"he said, sarcastically.

As we went along, the conversation mainly consisted of Ed grumbling about everything and everyone.

"Ah yes,"he said, when we got to the foxhole,"this is where I dropped my wand."

I cast the digging spell.

"What are you doing?"Ed said,"you haven't lost YOUR wand down there, have you?"

"Ed, I'm using my WAND to dig it up!"I pointed out 

"Ah - yes, of course!"Ed said,"I'm tired!"

"Let's go down,"I said, summoning the spare rope and fastening it round a tree.

"Go - down?"Ed said.

"Yup!"I answered.

"Cathy, have you gone mad!? I'm not going down a fox hole!"Ed objected.

I went down first, and Ed followed, but only out of curiosity. 

"What - what is that?"he said, when he saw the archway into the hidden chamber,"why didn't you tell us about this before?"

"I didn't because I couldn't,"I answered,"come on in!"

Ed followed me under the archway. He looked around at the potion ingredients.

"I don't know about this,"Ed said, picking up the skull fragment,"some pretty dark stuff, this is!"

"Maybe don't go touching it, then!"I suggested, as Ed realised what it was that he was holding, and dropped it back onto the shelf with a shudder.

"Looks like some kind of shady banned-potions laboratory,"Ed was saying, then he turned to me,"this isn't YOUR secret potions laboratory, is it?"

"No, of course not!"I said,"as if I could come up with something like this!"

"Well, you never can tell,"Ed said.

"Do you really think I would be that kind of person?"I went on.

"Like I said - you never really can tell,"Ed said,"do you even know me?"

"I'd like to think I do,"I said.

Ed gave me what I supposed he meant to be a mysterious smirk.

I showed him the book. He can't read Ancient Runes as well as I can, so, to him it was completely unintelligible.

"It's an even older form of Ancient Runes,"I said,"I've been translating it."

"Any luck?"Ed asked, paging through the book with interest.

"A bit,"I said,"that's why I came here, actually. I didn't want to come here by myself, and I wanted to show you this place. Now that I've shown you, we can talk about it."

"Who else knows about it?"Ed asked.

"Just Lotty,"I said,"that I know of. I think there may be some more people at some points that knew about this place, but they won't have been able to tell anyone else. There's an enchantment here that prevents you from speaking or writing of it. It doesn't prevent you from showing people though."

I started copying down the runes from a random potion page. Annoyingly, I couldn't use my enchanted quill for this. Whatever enchantment there was on the runes in the old book prevented me from taking any short-cuts like that. My quill was just as confused as people who can't see past the enchantment, and it was copying down nonsense.

While I copied the runes by hand, Ed examined the potion ingredients on the shelves. As he did so, he lifted up what he thought to be a large rock, and all of a sudden there was a loud scraping sound! I looked up in time to see a doorway opening from a wall of the chamber.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Did you know about this?"Ed said.

"No,"I answered.

"Should we see where it goes?"Ed said, sounding doubtful.

"Yes, of course!"I said, jumping up.

I entered first, with some caution. Ed followed behind.

"It seems to be a storage room,"I observed.

This was an even bigger cave space, filled with even more potion ingredients.

"No!"Ed said, pointing to a shelf.

I looked at where he was pointing, and a skull looked back at me.

"Come on, Cathy, let's get out of here!"Ed said,"this is some dark magic place, I'm sure of it!"

We backed out of the room of potion ingredients, and the wall closed. 

"Let's go!"Ed said.

"You go,"I said,"I still have copying to do."

"Have you gone mad?"Ed objected,"do you know what sort of a place this is? I'm not going to stay here one more minute!"

"Go on then!"I said, getting annoyed.

He went, and I resumed copying as quickly as I could. It did seem a bit eerie, being in here alone. It was already too creepy for Ed and Lotty, but I HAD to study these runes! There's nothing like having a good secret code to work on!

After a few minutes, I was startled by a shuffling sound behind me, and quickly swung round into a defensive position.

It was Ed.

"I accidentally buried you down here, Cathy,"he said, in a grim tone of voice,"when I got out, up at the top, I just started filling in the ground without even thinking. So I decided to come back down here and see if you were alright."

"Oh yeah - I forgot that's a thing that happens,"I said,"it's part of the enchantment."

"Now that's dark!"Ed exclaimed,"do you know the Imperius Curse? It's giving me those kind of vibes!"

"Now that you mention it,"I agreed,"but it isn't exactly the same, I don't think so, anyway."

"It's close enough,"Ed said,"let's get out of here now!"

"Just - let me copy down one more page!"I insisted,"I've got a page for a potion, I just need a page for a spell!"

Ed gave me a judging look,"what kind of spells and potions would you be needing from that book?"

"I'm not looking for spells and potions in the book,"I said,"I'm using these pages to help me translate the rune script! That's my whole goal! I'm studying for once, like you're always saying I need to do more of..."

"Yes, you need to do a lot more studying, but not DARK magic!"Ed argued,"if you don't leave in two minutes, I'm going to bury you down here for the next hour! If I remember to come back for you, that is!"

I managed to copy down a portion of the spell page in two minutes, then I reluctantly followed Ed up and out. We both filled in the fox hole, without even thinking about it. 

I went to my dormitory to study the runes in peace and quiet.

End of March:

Lotty and I were sitting in the invisible treehouse by ourselves, drinking tea and talking about things.

"What's this May Festival thing people have been talking about?"Lotty asked me.

"That,"I said, thinking,"it's some kind of party. It'll be in Hogsmeade. I went to one when I was in the 4th Year."

"If it's in Hogsmeade, I won't be able to go,"said Lotty,"I'm not allowed to go there until I'm in the 3rd Year."

"It's not the most exciting thing in the world,"I said,"the best thing about it is the food. If I go, I'll make sure to bring some food back for you and Anita."

Then Lotty thought she saw something out of the arched window that overlooks the Duelling Meadow.

"What was it?"I asked.

"I'm sure I saw a person walking down there!"Lotty said,"and I'm sure they came out of the Forbidden Forest!"

"You really think so?"I said,"where did they go?"

"I don't know,"Lotty said, frowning, she was looking out of a different window now,"unless they've gone back into the Forbidden Forest? I don't know where they've gone."

Lotty and I cautiously climbed down the treehouse. 

"What if it was one of the others?"I suggested, meaning Anita, Ed or Jared.

"No - I'd have known if it was one of them,"Lotty answered, looking serious.

We ventured into the Duelling Meadow. I felt nervous looking at the Forbidden Forest. It seemed like there could be anyone, or anything, in there, just looking back at us, unseen.

"I think we should have a quick look,"Lotty said.

I didn't say anything. I didn't like going up to those creepy, dark trees. There are pine trees, and oaks, and trees so shrouded in ivy that they're like hedges in the shape of trees. It was eerily quiet, as the wind rushed around us with a gripping chill.

Lotty went forward and cast Lumos as she entered the forest. When she disappeared into the trees, I had to follow.

Now I was beginning to realise how Lotty and Ed must have felt in the Foxhole Chamber. As we walked through those trees, I felt extremely claustrophobic.

"The centaurs won't be happy about this,"I said.

"If they catch us,"Lotty responded.

The trees grew incredibly close together, almost completely stifling any stray daylight that might find its way down to us. Lotty looked around.

"We can't go far,"I warned Lotty.

I really wanted to go back!

"Ugh, what's that smell?"Lotty suddenly remarked.

Then I noticed it too. We hadn't smelt it at first, because of the direction of the wind (which was really quite wild today).

"It smells like something's died!"Lotty said.

"Let's get out of here!"I urged, starting to imagine all sorts of horrors.

Lotty agreed this time. We hastily turned around and scrambled back towards the daylight that beckoned us from the Duelling Meadow.

But then there was a cracking sound and a scream! Lotty was gone.

"Lotty!"I yelled,"LOTTY!"

I noticed a hole had appeared in the ground. Opon closer examination, there appeared to be wooden boards concealed beneath the dirt. Rotten ones. And Lotty had fallen through them!

"Lotty!"I yelled down the hole.

"I'm alright!"Lotty yelled back up.

I don't think I've ever been so relieved in my whole life! I summoned the spare rope, tied it around the nearest tree and climbed down. 

As soon as my feet touched the floor, I was greeted by the horrible, rotting stench we had smelt when we were above. The light from my wand illuminated not only Lotty, sitting on the floor, holding her ankle, but something else. It looked like a pile of green fungus at first, but it seemed to have eyes!

Within seconds of seeing it, it scuttled away like some sort of giant millipede-spider thing, disappearing into the darkness beyond.

"It's a tunnel,"Lotty said,"I think the smell was coming from that creature thing."

"Do you think it's dangerous?"I asked.

"I don't know,"Lotty answered,"I think it's scared of us. It's gone now."

"Let's get out before it decides to come back,"I said, helping Lotty up.

Lotty climbed up the rope into the forest above. I cast a look around the tunnel as she disappeared above me. It went in two directions; forwards and backwards. I couldn't see an ending either way. It was as big as a train tunnel, the walls were mostly brick, apart from the occasional square of wooden boards here and there in the roof.

"Come on, Cathy!"I heard Lotty calling down to me.

I climbed the rope, and we quickly exited the Forbidden Forest.

"That was terrible!"I said.

"We're alright, though,"Lotty said,"didn't see any sign of that person in there."

"You're sure you saw someone?"I went on.

Lotty nodded,"I think they might have been a student,"she said,"they were wearing a hooded cloak like our school cloaks, the hood was up. It was a plain, black cloak."

We weren't sure whether or not to tell the others, as we knew Jared and Anita would want to explore the tunnel. That would be too risky, especially as it was in the Forbidden Forest! Anita, in particular, was most at risk of being a curious cat.

We decided to tell Ed.

"That creature sounds like a Bundimun,"he said, after we described it to him,"it rots away wooden boards, gives off a terrible smell, looks like you described."

"Are they dangerous?"Lotty asked.

"If they're rotting away floorboards in your house, they are,"Ed said,"they don't attack people, though. Just cause a nuisance. We had one in the attic of a house we lived in once, remember?"

"I do remember there being a terrible smell,"I said.

"Yeah, we moved out before we saw it,"Ed said,"I knew it was probably a Bundimun, though. I'm surprised you didn't recognise it. You don't read enough! It's in Fantastic Beasts! I read that book before I even came to Hogwarts!"