Characters: MacNair and Fenrir Greyback Setting: The Forbidden Forest Content: Currently Worksafe Summary: The evening before the students return to Hogwarts School MacNair sets up base camp in the Forbidden Forest and receives a guest he wasn't expecting.
It wasn't as if the room in the Hog's Head wasn't comfortable. Well, it wasn't, no cheap inn could really be comfortable, with broken beds and un-aired sheets and a dank smell to the air. Outside was better, fresher, and considerably less crowded on the run-up to the start of term.
So MacNair had given up his bed for that night within the village and trekked into the forest. It was a huge uncharted bit of territory, thick with dark foreboding trees and undergrowth that grabbed at ankles and bare skin. But during school he'd camped within it's shadows, and now he was back. It felt as if the Forest remembered him, as if it was closing in about the clearing he'd chosen, watching him.
It probably was. But he ignored it all the same, kicking the dead leaves and twigs out of the way, clearing them from the dark earth and setting down the pack. He had a fire going in only a few moments, without the use of a wand, and he felt the trees pull away, and the breath of wind that hissed seemed to be a hiss of aggression and disapproval. He shrugged, although there was no-one to shrug too, and sat down on his pack, and pulled out the cigarettes from his trouser pocket, lighting it from the fire and then leaning back again, enjoying the first drag in the still, cold air.