Slightly Lost

"I'm telling you, Lou, it went somewhere in here," Roxanne said, pointing at the cluster of trees as she tried to retrieve the Quaffle that had been knocked over in this direction. They had been having a game of catch with the red ball when Roxanne had thrown it a little too hard (stupidly hard, that accidental magic was kind of out of control) and it had gone hurtling off into the woods. "Come on, we'll find it, and then we can play again. It won't have gone too far."

She hummed a little as she ran towards it, entering the woodland and looking around as they travelled deeper into the trees, but she couldn't seem to see it anywhere. What was more was that when she turned around, she couldn't see the Burrow either. In fact, all she could see were trees and leaves. "Lou?" Roxanne asked, a little tentatively, turning to look at her cousin and dragging her teeth over her bottom lip a little. "Um, do you know where we are?"

They had just been playing catch, which Louis preferred over Quidditch because he wasn't very keen on flying seeing as he was really afraid he'd fall off. He did like playing catch though, and he had an okay hand-eye coördination. If he wasn't so afraid of flying, he would probably be a good Quidditch player. But then Roxy had thrown the ball into the forest, and ran off to get it. And Louis didn't want to stay out on his own, so he'd followed his cousin inside, very reluctant and instantly nervous.

"Roxy! Wait up!" he called, trying to make his legs go faster so he could catch up with his cousin. When he did he quickly curled a hand around her wrist so she couldn't get away.

They kept walking, and Louis was getting more nervous by the second. And then when Roxy asked him if he knew where they were he nearly burst into tears. "We're lost, aren't we? Oh no, we're lost. What if we can't get out? What if we don't find a way back?" he whimpered, biting his lower lip. "I wanna go home.."

Roxanne felt sort of guilty as Louis burst into tears, turning to look at him. "No! Don't cry! I know exactly where we are. I... just thought we should play a game!" She had no clue where she was. If she got them even more lost she would be in trouble. "Yeah, a game would be cool. Like um, why don't we build a den? We could have our own den and you could be the great Louis, and I could be the wonderful Roxanne, and we could be superheroes."

She grabbed his other hand with her free one and led him in another direction. "See, there's a weird shaped tree over there, it looks a bit like Auntie Audrey. We could keep that as like a landmark, yeah?" Oh Merlin, where were they? "Okay, um... Oh! And we could have like a little hut, see, there's some big branches over there. Who cares about the Quaffle? We'll get Freddie to find it." She grinned at Louis, before casting a glance back over her shoulder. So they'd come in that direction. Surely if they kept going back that way they'd get home, wouldn't they?

Louis sniffled and listened. A game? Why would they want to play a game? They were lost, they had to find their way back home. His maman would be very angry if he wasn't back in time. Louis nervously twirled a strand of hair around his finger. It had reached his shoulders again, meaning the whiteblond locks were due for a trim soon. He had tried to explain to his maman that he wanted to grow his hair out like his papa, but she wouldn't let him. It made the younger boy slightly sad, because he quite liked his hair when it was long. It was very soft.

But superheroes were amazing. And being the Great Louis sounded like fun, the way Roxy put it. Louis bit his lip, glancing at the tree Roxy pointed out. If he squinted, it did indeed look a bit like auntie Audrey. A giggle burst from the boy's lips.

He let Roxy lead him through the forest. "Do you know where we're going then? Are we going the right way?" he asked nervously. "Can our den have a fountain?" he asked hopefully.

"Fountains are cool!" Roxanne agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "We could have a fountain. Right about..." - she placed one foot in front of the other with each syllable, moving into a clearing - "Here!" She scooped up some leaves to clear the space, and threw them at her cousin, grinning madly. "Ooops. Slipped."

Running towards the Auntie Audrey tree, Roxanne used a branch as footing to haul herself up and climbed up into the tree to see whether she could see the house from here. She beamed as she clung to one of the top branches, wishing for a moment that she really was this tall. She could see for miles. She could even see the Quaffle they had lost. "LOU!" she called down to her cousin excitedly. "I CAN SEE THE QUAFFLE! HOLD ON, I'LL GET IT!"

Her next action, she realised later, she hadn't really thought about. Jumping down from the tree, she hit the ground on her feet and stumbled forwards, landing on her front with a small "oof", at the same time twisting her ankle. "Ow!" she squealed, shifting back into a sitting position and clutching at her ankle. "Owow, that huuuuurt," she slurred, wincing as she tried to put weight back on it. Needless to say, that didn't seem to be too successful.

Louis followed his cousin immediately, not wanting to be left behind in the forest where he didn't know the way. He was glad they could have a fountain though, he liked fountains. He yelped as leaves were thrown at him, jumping out of the way, though he was too late and the leaves got stuck in his blond hair. Louis immediately stated to pull them from it. "Eww!" he protested, the wet leaves sticking to his hands.

Louis watched with wide eyes as Roxy hauled herself into a tree. He was very worried she'd fall, but she seemed to do okay. The blond boy went to stand close to the tree, not wanting to get lost in some weird way. He wanted to be able to see Roxy at all times. When his cousin said she could see the quaffle Louis beamed. "Can you see the house too Roxy? Is it far?" he asked, but before she could answer she jumped from the tree. Jumped. Louis yelped again, wanting to tell her to be careful but it was too late.

Louis hurried over to her immediately, getting down on his knees so he could look at her ankle. He nearly burst into tears at the drama of it all, but he reminded himself he had to be strong, because he wasn't the one in pain. Roxy was. Louis laid a hand on his shoulder and tried to remember what his maman did when he was hurt. She usually kissed it better and then gave him hot chocolate and read to him. But there was no hot chocolate in the forest. Louis bit his lip.

"Do you," he started, wondering if it was a silly question. He wasn't Roxy's mum, he wasn't even a mum, could he still kiss things better? "Do you want me to kiss it better?" he asked, despite the fact he wasn't sure if it would work. Maybe it would.

Roxanne gritted her teeth and looked at Louis. Her mum always did that, kiss her injuries better. Would it work? He wasn't a mum. But she smiled and nodded. "Go on then," she murmured, offering him her ankle.

"If you help me up, I can hop back, I think I saw the house," she told him. Now she knew where the Quaffle was it seemed painfully obvious to see. "And the Quaffle is behind that tree! We must have walked past it like seventy times," she said, indicating the tree in question, before looking back up at the Auntie Audrey tree above her. It was pretty high, now she looked at it. She was amazed she hadn't broken anything. "Quick though, Lou! grab the Quaffle before the villains come! We need codenames. Maybe you could be Superblond or something. And I could be... Captain Curly."

Louis bit his lip and then leaned down, rolling the fabric off of Roxy's ankle before placing his lips against the sore skin and placed numerous kisses on it. He wasn't sure if he was doing very well, or if it helped. He placed one more kiss on it and then pulled away, looking at Roxy hopefully. "I know I'm not your mum, but I hope it helped a little," he said quietly, before getting off his knees.

"I'll go get the quaffle then," he said, hurrying towards the place Roxy had pointed out. He didn't want to leave her alone for long, and he didn't want to be alone for long either. He saw the ball quickly and gathered it in his arms and returned to Roxy. "Found it," he told her, holding out the ball for her so he could help her up.

He placed both hands under her armpits and then used all his strength to pull her up. He wrapped an arm around Roxy's waist as she wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Can my code name be Prince Edward?" he asked without thinking. He'd never told anyone but Lucy about him before. But Prince Edward made him feel braver, and he could use some bravery right now. "If that's all right with you.." he added hesitatingly.

Roxanne grinned a little as Louis kissed her ankle better. "Thank you," she said with a smile. "That probably will help." She put her arm around his shoulders as he helped her up, and hopped. "Okay," she said, hopping in a semicircle to turn them around to face the direction of the house. "Our stronghold is this way, Prince Edward," she said, pointing with her free arm back in the direction of the house. "Quickly! Let's get to it before the villains do!"

She hopped a little distance, before stopping. "Oh no!" she gasped, spotting a felled log. "Look, Prince Edward, there's a dragon guarding the entrance! We have to find a way around it!" Games made lots of scary things more fun. And she did kind of remember that log from before, so maybe they were going in the right direction. She looked at Louis as if waiting for him to think of something inspiring to do about the "dragon", and grinned. "It's a good job I'm a trained dragon rider, isn't it?" she told him matter-of-factly.

Louis felt much better when he slipped into being Prince Edward. Prince Edward wasn't afraid of being in the forest, and he wasn't afraid of being lost. Because he was brave and knew they would find a way back. Louis let Roxy lean on him as they moved, hoping to relieve as much of the pain in her ankle as he possibly could. "The villains won't be faster, even with your sore foot, we will be faster, because we're smarter than them!" Louis announced proudly as they continued walking towards the house.

Louis grinned as Roxy pointed at the trunk, which was now a dragon. The blond remembered the invisible sword he owned. "And if you don't manage to get it under control, I will have to slay it with my ruby covered sword, it has never failed me before Captain Curly!" he told her, grinning again. This game made it much less worse they were stuck in a forest, and Louis already felt better.

"Are you going to try and overpower it? I'll have your back!" he told her, pulling the invisible sword from the invisible sheath. "If they make the wrong move, I will slay it!" he said, loving how brave being Prince Edward made him feel. It was intoxicating.

"We're smarter than them!" Roxanne repeated loudly, punching the air, before looking to where Louis' imaginary sword sheath would be. "Good plan, Prince Edward."

She began to hop towards the log, slower though. This was a dragon she was dealing with. She had to be careful not to startle it. As she reached it, she put her hands on the log carefully, where the dragon's wings were, and crawled on top of it, before grinning triumphantly, also glad of the seat. Her ankle hurt and her leg was beginning to sting from where she had been hopping. "Prince Edward!" she called. "I have tamed it!"

Louis kept his eyes trained on Roxy, fully living in their imagination land now, and prepared to protect his cousin from invisible dragons. He swung around his sword while Roxanne climbed on top of the log, and when she informed him she had tamed it, Louis whooped. He accidentally dropped the invisible sword, but pretended if he had meant to do that and quickly picked it back up and put it back in the sheath.

Then he climbed onto the log as well, taking a seat behind Roxy. "D'you suppose it can take us home?" he asked her, stifling a yawn. Or maybe they could take a nap on top of the dragon, and then go home. He wished someone would have come to look for them. Louis refused to let his desperation show, not while he was Prince Edward.

"Or maybe we can use its fire to summon help!"

Roxanne grinned as Louis climbed on the back of the dragon with her. "I think we could use him to fly us out," she agreed. "Or maybe even-" She gasped suddenly. "That's it! We do a smoke signal! Oh Merlin, Louis- Prince Edward, I have a firework Dad was testing! We can launch that and they'll know where we are!"

She grinned brightly as she hobbled from the branch and limped towards the clearing a bit, before taking out the red funnel-like tube. Taking in a deep breath for courage, she pulled the ring pull at the bottom and yanked it, hard.

At once the firework exploded, whirling around them and decorating the sky as it ricocheted off of the trees, before shooting upwards and exploding into a myriad of red sparks, visible against even the day sky. Her mum and dad and aunties and uncles would see that. She grinned at Louis, and folded her arms contently, before making her way back to sit on the log with him.

"The dragon has very powerful smoke, doesn't it, Prince Edward?"

Louis could've cried with relief when Roxy said she had some firework her dad, his uncle, was testing. He watched as she hobbled to the clearing, and yanked at the firework. It exploded into the air, it was really beautiful, and Louis watched in admiration. It distracted him from worrying, and he only realized where he was again when Roxy spoke up again.

But before Louis could answer, he heard several familiar sounds that he recognized as apparation. His head flew around immediately and relief washed over him.

"Daddy!" he cried, nearly falling off the log as he threw himself at his father, not caring he was probably too old to do that because he was nine now, and nine year olds weren't supposed to throw themselves at their father like that. He buried his head in the familiar scent of his father's robes before looking up again and finding Roxy.

"They found us Captain Curly!" he said with a happy grin, no longer worried.