Who: Gerard and Spencer Where: The Forbidden Forest When: December 20th, early enough to be grumpy. What: Christmas Tree Hunting.
"No offense," Spencer said, as they trudged along the crisp, snow-covered ground to the first stretch of trees. "It's just that, you know, the Forbidden Forest has a bad rap, don't you think? I haven't seen anything scarier than Jon's Hippogriffs out here, and, I mean. Baby twin Hippogriffs." He gave Gerard a meaningful look, because Spencer was a mature adult, and he'd stopped getting starry eyes over the baby Hippogriffs quite some time ago. Really.
"Anyway," he added, "you've been coming out here with me for months and we haven't seen anything." He scratched his chin. "I'm starting to feel cheated. Maybe we're just not going in far enough or whatever? But basically, I still think this is Schechter punishing me for the whole fireworks thing." He nodded just once, decisively. That had been the original point of an argument that had gone on rather longer than he'd meant it to, and he smiled sheepishly at Gerard.
The first few trees loomed up in front of them, unexpected as the Forbidden Forest always managed to be, and Spencer breathed in. All arguments aside, the forest was always a little frightening. Spencer and Gerard were on a mission, though, to spread holiday cheer. If that meant trying to coax a few particularly grumpy pine trees out of the forest, well. Spencer was a professional.