Regulus stopped watching them. He'd taught what needed teaching; the rest was theirs to figure out.
He spread his magical perception wide, past the faint pulse of ordinary plants, sweeping deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
He skirted the snarling signatures, the ones bristling with attack or defense, and hunted for something else entirely: magic with emotional texture, magic with no edge to it at all.
Bowtruckle magic was distinct. Quiet, outward-facing, neither aggressive nor guarded, a light resonance between magic and living things, like a conversation held with the surrounding trees.
Found them.
West by north, a stand of unusually well-formed trees, dense-grained and old. Good wand wood.
Bowtruckles favored trees like that. A whole nest of them tucked into the thin branches of the crown, that plant-like flicker of feeling seeping out through the leaves in thin threads.
He fixed the location in his mind and didn't move. No point catching them now.
Tonight was Friday. Detention ended once they'd gathered enough magical moss. Tomorrow was Saturday, better anyway. He'd come back in daylight and handle it along with returning Baruk to Aragog's lair.
Pulling his perception back, he stood where he was and watched them work.
Lina crouched beside a crack in the rock, harvesting with more enthusiasm than anyone.
She'd shut her eyes to test, then snap them open and pounce, digging until she came up with a fistful. Every clump she found earned him a backward glance before she ducked down again.
The moss piled up faster than her hands could hold, so she gathered the hem of her robe into a pouch and squatted there with her backside stuck out, like a squirrel rooting for buried food.
Samuel worked slowly and gathered less, never rushing. He'd crouch with his eyes closed for a while first, get his bearings, and only then reach out.
Alex's perception was sluggish, so he compensated with effort. He turned over one stone, felt along every crevice underneath, and stacked what he found in a neat row across his palm.
Cuthbert straightened his back after every second clump, looking around, clearly treating none of this as serious business. He spent less time sensing with his eyes shut than he did squinting around blindly.
A find got a triumphant grunt; a miss got some muttering. He might as well have been on a treasure hunt, and he was enjoying every minute.
Magical perception was new. Glowing grass was new. Even squatting in the dirt scratching at things was new.
Hermes had barely picked anything. He'd drifted to a tree and leaned against it with two or three sad strands in his hand.
Presumably he'd decided showing up empty-handed wouldn't fly, so he'd yanked up a few at random. Uneven lengths, some with roots attached, some snapped in half.
One here for the fun of it, one taking it seriously, one angling to stand out, one with too much going on behind his eyes, one too lazy to bother. A full set.
Flossie was tied to a trunk a little way off, the rope wound several times around her neck.
She wouldn't settle. She kept the rope stretched taut, straining toward Regulus.
He smelled good to her, that clean natural magic of soil and green things.
Flossie liked the smell. She just didn't dare come closer.
There was a strange thing crouched on his shoulder, watching her with all eight eyes, and the look wasn't friendly.
She'd inch forward and Baruk's chelicerae would click.
Then she'd shrink back, tail tucked, a low rumble in her throat, wounded and longing at once.
The corner of Regulus's mouth lifted. He turned his head slightly. "Tomorrow, I'll make you stronger."
Baruk came alive instantly, chelicerae snapping open and shut in a rapid clatter, dark red bristles standing on end.
"Strong! Strong!"
It dropped from his shoulder onto the ground.
The Forbidden Forest was home. From shell to full-grown spider, everything it knew was here.
Landing didn't calm it down. First stop was Flossie, eight legs pattering across the dirt toward her.
The big dog was already backing away, tail clamped, whining faintly.
Baruk knew this one wasn't food, so it circled just beyond the rope's reach, eight eyes tracking her up and down.
Round and round it went, unhurried, pausing now and then to tilt its head, lifting a leg to tap the ground, as if working out the best way to torment her.
Flossie couldn't take teasing. Terrified, she balled up and tried to hide behind the tree, but the rope wouldn't let her manage it, so she just scraped backward, bark rasping against her flank.
She whimpered and stared at Regulus, pleading, not daring to bark in case it set the eight-eyed thing off.
Her retreat only encouraged Baruk, which crept closer. Flossie's panic doubled, all four legs scrabbling, gouging shallow furrows in the soil.
Bored of the dog at last, Baruk wandered elsewhere.
It went to inspect the little moss-gathering spiders one by one, never showing itself.
Hidden in the undergrowth, it watched Alex, who was absorbed in prying at a crack in the stone, oblivious to the eight eyes behind him.
Eight legs shifted without a sound. It moved on, tucked itself into a gap between rocks and watched Lina with only its two main eyes exposed.
Lina was still digging, backside up. Baruk observed for a while, clicked its chelicerae twice, softly, and said nothing.
Then it circled behind Cuthbert and paused. Cuthbert had his eyes shut, fingers roving over a stone, mumbling. "This one's definitely... no. Still a rock."
Baruk tilted its head at him for a moment, then turned and left.
Samuel was working not far from Lina. Baruk poked half a head out of the leaf litter behind him, all eight eyes fixed on his back.
Samuel didn't turn, but his hands stilled for a beat. He'd felt something. He just didn't say so.
Hermes was leaning on his tree when Baruk lowered itself upside down from the branch above him, dark red bristles gleaming faintly in the pale green glow of the glowing mushroom, eight eyes level with his face.
Hermes raised his eyelids, held its gaze a moment, then reached up without expression and brushed the dangling strand of silk aside.
Baruk reeled the silk in, flipped back onto the branch, and vanished.
Twenty minutes or so later it came scurrying out of the trees, climbed his trouser leg back to his shoulder, and curled its legs beneath it.
One foreleg came to rest against Regulus's ear, rubbing there. Claiming credit, probably. Look, I checked everything for you.
Regulus reached up and stroked its carapace with a fingertip. Baruk swayed, then settled and went still.
By the time full dark came down, the young wizards drifted back one after another, each with a decent haul.
Lina arrived first, cradling a great armful, threads of moss slipping through her fingers, the cold white light lighting up her whole face.
She stopped in front of him, tucked the moss carefully into the cloth bag, then straightened and looked at him with shining eyes.
Samuel came behind her with his own handful, less than hers. He'd done what needed doing and nothing more, dropped it in the bag, and gave Regulus a nod.
Cuthbert ambled back with a messy tangle, tossed it in, and slapped the dirt off his hands, thoroughly at ease.
Alex returned with a slight frown. He'd gathered plenty, but he'd also worked out that he wasn't gifted at this. No matter how he reached, something sat between him and the sensation.
Hermes came last, holding a pitiful few strands. Bare compliance, boredom written all over him.
Regulus took it all in.
He ignored Cuthbert and Hermes. One was chasing novelty and the other found the whole thing tedious. Nothing worth saying to either.
"Not bad." He looked at Lina first. "First time, and you found that much."
Her smile broke open, bright with excitement, and she turned at once to look at Alex.
"Samuel did well too." Regulus turned to him and left the rest unsaid. "Patient. You know what you're looking for."
Samuel glanced up at him, then dropped his eyes. His mouth twitched and his shoulders loosened.
Then Regulus looked at Alex. "From now on, you train those two."
Alex blinked.
"Teach them magic control as well," Regulus went on. "Start with the light charm, then move to casting from the fingertips. Anything you don't understand, come to me."
Lina's eyes lit up again and she nearly jumped, but Samuel nudged her with an elbow, unhurried, and she caught herself, settling for a hard nod.
Alex caught up a moment later and understood what Regulus meant.
His own magic control was only just past the beginner stage and his perception was worse. Handing him Lina and Samuel wasn't about offloading work. It was about forcing him to dig deeper himself, because teaching demanded it.
What else would he teach from?
"Understood." He met Regulus's eyes, tone serious, no hesitation.
Then he turned to the other two. "Come find me after lunch tomorrow."
"Thanks, Alex!"
This time Lina genuinely jumped, and landed badly, tipping toward him.
He caught her arm, expression mild. "Careful."
Her cheeks went red. She pressed her lips together and smiled anyway, unable to hold it back.
Samuel glanced at her, then looked away and nodded to Alex, sincere. "Sorry to put this on you."
It wasn't especially late, eight or nine o'clock.
Night deepened over the Forbidden Forest, and the glowing plants grew livelier than they'd been in daylight.
The outer edge was safe enough, but the later it got, the less sense there was in lingering. Creatures from the depths ranged outward at night. They wouldn't reach the perimeter, but there was no reason to test it.
Alex cinched the bag shut, drew his wand, and pointed it at the sky.
A green spark shot from the tip, threaded through a gap in the canopy, and burst overhead. It burned for a few seconds before drifting down.
A while later, another green spark rose in the east. Hagrid had received it.
Alex took Flossie's lead and started back at the front of the group.
Cuthbert walked beside him, still riding the high, muttering. "Magical perception... my father brought it up ages ago. Said I was too young, wouldn't teach me. Turns out it's nothing much once you actually try it."
The more he thought about it, the better he felt. "When I go home for the holidays, I'll show him a thing or two. See if he still calls me too young."
Hermes agreed, for once. "Mm."
To him, this was hardly anything either. Cuthbert wasn't wrong. It wasn't difficult.
At the head of the line, Alex heard it. The corner of his mouth moved slightly, and he said nothing.
Flossie's rope was in his hand, her tail higher than it had been on the way in, probably because they were finally leaving.
Lina and Samuel walked in the middle.
She was still glowing, though whether from Regulus's praise or something else was hard to say.
A single strand of moss stayed clutched in her fist, too precious to let go. She kept glancing down at it, and stealing glances at the boy walking ahead of them.
Samuel said nothing and took it all in.
Regulus brought up the rear with Baruk on his shoulder.
Ahead, Flossie looked back every third step, at last putting some distance between herself and the eight-eyed monster.