West didn't scream, just raised her wand and shot a red bolt of light
out of her wand. However, in her panic, the spell hit a tree branch,
which dropped to the ground with a thump, shaking everyone where they
stood. Alana ran to free Jade from the web, and yelped when her fingers
were covered in sticky strands of effervescent white. She tried to wipe
her hands on a nearby tree, but succeeded only in getting the palms of
them stuck to the bark.

Jade, from her uncomfortable and gluey vantage point on the web, yelled out to her friends, her voice muffled. "Distract it!"

Alana

turned, lifted her wand agreeably, and tried to conjure an illusion-
but succeeded only in sending a small puff of green, bitter-smelling
dust into the air. It was the same dust that Jade had shot after their
collision. The smell was that of lime zest and spring pollen, which
would have been pleasant, but there was a biting note of sulfur and damp
wood.

The green dust spread across every surface as Alana
tried harder at her spell. The particles of green stung slightly when
they landed on Jade's skin. The scent was stranger up close, more
identifiable. There was seaweed and dead fish in the smell, and
something chalky and dark, like ashes. It was sharp and almost painful,
but every molecule of it snapped a thread of web.

West raised her
wand, but her stress and terror caused her to lose focus as she pushed
harder on the spell. The Acromantula advanced, its pincers clicking.

"Back
up," she whimpered, her brilliant courage for once failing her. The
spider pressed closer. "Get back," she said, voice breaking.

Suddenly, all of the light in the forest evaporated. The clearing was bathed in darkness, and then-

"I SAID, GET BACK!"

West's
voice roared through the forest, and light returned, but it was a
brighter light than before. Jade shielded her eyes, but the green dust
finished eating through the fibers of web, and she fell to the ground, a smack in her tailbone sending shivers through her entire body.

West was still on the ground, standing, solid. There was an invisible wind tousling her hair, and the forest floor was shifting under her feet. With a snapping noise, dark green vines shot out of the ground and snaked towards the spider, ensnaring its legs. The plants were emanating from West, and yet they seemed to be out of control. The girl herself was shaking and pale, sweat beaded on her brow. She clearly had no idea why or how this was happening.

"Make- it- STOP!" She shouted through clenched teeth, as the vines lashed out like whips, striking the trunks of trees and leaving long gashes. The spider writhed, and West screamed.

"Diffindo!" Jade slashed her wand, still sticky and covered in white goo, and sliced the vines in half. West collapsed on the ground, crying and hugging herself. Alana and Jade dropped next to her, and Alana put an arm around her shoulders while Jade rubbed her back.

"It's okay," Alana said softly, giving her friend a small, tight hug.

"There were- I couldn't-" West breathed hard, hiccuping. "I couldn't control those. They came from me, I think they did, but I couldn't make them stop. They broke away from me, and they were just going insane. I was-" hiccup- "so scared."

"It's alright now, West," Jade said, taking a deep breath and letting the damp, pine-wood forest smells fill her nose.

"It is most certainly not alright!" A voice snapped behind them, and the girls turned to see Headmaster Thornbeck and Dumbledore storming towards them. "What are you doing in the Forest?"

Jade stared down at her hands. "I got mad, and I ran, and I didn't stop until I tripped and fell and ended up here. There was a giant spider thing, and it attacked me." As if to prove her point, she pulled a chunk of white web out of her hair.

West took the story over, drying her eyes with the hem of her now-ragged pajama sleeve. "I heard her scream, and it felt like a dream but then it didn't, and so I woke up Alana and we came out here."

"The spider was about to eat Jade, but we tried to distract it and I got all sticky and then West got the spider tied up and I don't know where it is anymore and-" Alana paused for breath. "We're sorry."

"Sorry isn't enough," their headmaster snapped. "For all the trouble you three get yourselves into, you should have been expelled years ago."

Dumbledore placed a wizened hand on Headmaster Thornbeck's shoulder. "Sir, with all due respect, I may not run your school, but I do not think that expelling a student for getting mad and her two friends for rescuing her and having an innate sense of her peril is a rational reaction." His eyes twinkled at Jade, Alana, and West.

Thornbeck glared. "Fine. A week of detention for all of you, and be glad I don't make it worse. Now go to bed, all of you."

Jade hooked arms with the others and ran up to the castle, their shadows barely visible in the darkness of the night.

"You're too hard on them, Aloysius. They may have a penchant for trouble, but they mean no harm." Dumbledore smiled gently, remembering stories that the Eaglesclaw headmaster had told him about many a time.

"Trust me, Albus," Headmaster Thornbeck replied, "you have no idea."