Cassidy looked at her friends. She heard the noise too. It sounded heavy...about the size of that deadly creature she had encountered. She grimaced.
"I really don't think we want to find out what it is..." she told Terra and Karli nervously. She had her wand out in plain view now, and spoke the incantation. "Bo ferula!"
The wand took the form of her black laquered bo staff. She held it at the ready, but then thought better of it. Another twig snapped, Cassidy shuddering at the heavy sound it made.
"Maybe...we should...go...." she said, taking a few more steps back, these ones quicker.
Suddenly, something growled, and sprung from the bushes!
A white tiger leapt for Cassidy, its massive paws baring long, sharp claws. She narrowed her eyebrows, as if expecting this enemy, and parried the tiger's massive weight with the force of a blow from her wooden staff. The tiger snarled at her angrily, showing its large, white teeth. Cassidy stared him down.
"Will you knock it off!" she yelled at the tiger. "Andrew!"
"Aw...you're no fun, sis," the tiger spoke, as he slowly transformed back to the dashing Andrew. He smiled arrogantly at her. "I've brought you a little present."
Cassidy looked at the spot he had gestured to. From behind a dead, black tree emerged Snape.
"Students out in the Forbidden Forest?" he scolded haughtily. "I daresay...whata misfortune. Fifty points from Gryffindor house, and it seems you will be joining Cassidy in detention tomorrow night. Now, get out of my sight before something BAD happens to you."
Andrew leered at Cassidy and her friends, twirling his Animagus pendant around his fingers. She turned to her friends, looking apologetic, but her remorse soon turned to dread. Before her, and behind her friends were little baby chimaera, the hatchlings of the creature she had encountered with Snape. They looked back at Cassidy and her friends hungrily...