One misstep too far (Open)

J. J. wandered away from the lake, worked up from her talk with the girl she had met there.
She shook her head. She needed to get it cleared, and stop letting everything get to her. It was making her slightly crazy.
So what? She was different from her family, different from what she had thought she was her whole life, it's not a big deal.
And honestly she had known she was different for sometime. The magic had manifested itself before her Hogwarts letter, she just hadn't understood it.
Really this should be a relief. She knew there were people like her. She wasn't the only 'freak' in the world.
She wasn't a freak at all.
She was a witch.
Something cracked underfoot and she looked up realizing that the sun had suddenly gone away.
That was because trees had been blocking it.
She gulped. She hadn't been paying attention.
J. J. was in a forest. The forbiddin forest.
She looked around nervously. She had know idea how deep she was in or how to get out. She hadn't exactly been following a trail or paying attention.
She had heard stories about the forest -- why else would it be forbidden?
What kind of creature would be hiding in its depths.
A twig snapped and J. J. jumped.
"Hullo," she called in a nervous voice, finger her wand although she only knew about two spells and neither were particularly useful at the moment, "Hullo?"
She swallowed nervously.
What had she gotten into?

"Hi," Charlotte said as she looked disgustedly at what she had just stepped on, a twig in between mud. "Did I scare you? Didn't mean to."

She grabbed her wand from her boot and muttered the cleaning spell.

J. J. held her chest as her wildly beating heart slowed down. Man, was she ever relived taht it was just another student.
"No, no," she said in a shaky voice when she was finally able to speak, "Well... I mean I guess you did, but it's my own fault for wandering into the forest. I should have known to keep out."
She gave the girl a long look before holding out her hand.
"I'm J. J. by the way."

Char couldn't help but smirk a little. She didn't mean to scare the girl but she thought it was sort of funny. She gave her a smile them and shook her hand.

"Name's Charlotte," she said and then added with a small laugh. "Any nickname is okay as long as I like it. I'm in Slytherin, you?"

"Hufflepuff," J. J. replied. She saw the girl smirk, but didn't push it. She probably found the whole situation funny. J. J. probably would have too if it was the otherway around.
Once again she cursed herself for not paying attention.
stupid forest, she thought grumpily.
"It is very nice to meet you Charlotte," she paused a moment. J. J. knew what she was doing in the forest, but what about other girl, "What are you doing here anyways? I didn't think we were allowed in the forest."

"Well, the word 'forbidden' drew me in actually," Char responded honestly. "And it's also because I heard there were Unicorns in here and I wanted to see them with my own eyes. I've always wanted to pet a unicorn too..."

She looked at the girl and noticed she was a bit skeptical about why she was doing here. "Don't worry, I might be a Slytherin but I'm not going to hurt you," she said reassuringly.

"Oh," J. J. hadn't really been worried about that, she had been more scared of the creatures she heard lurked in the woods to worry about a fellow student, "Well, that's a relief then, " she laughed anyways. She was starting to develop nervous giggles. She sighed. If she didn't get a hold of herself soon she would embarrass herself.
More than she already had that is.
"Unicorns?" she said after a moment, "They're real?" She couldn't help the question coming out no matter how stupid it sounded. She used to have a huge fixation on unicorns as a child - what little girl hadn't? Unicorns and princesses, and a knight in shinning armor.
She was definitely not a princess, and the knight in shinning armor had yet to show himself, but Unicorns...
Apparently they were free for her to go find, if she was willing to brave the forest.

"Unicorns, thestrals, trolls, werewolves, centaurs," she said shrugging nonchalantly, taking a look around the forest. "But don't worry about the scary things, they don't usually come out if there are two or more people together but don't ever let them get you alone." She added seriously, hoping she didn't scare the J.J. even more.

"Wait, what are you doing here at the forest?"

J.J. swallowed neverously at the least of creatures Charlotte gave her, she didn't know what half of them were, but most of them didn't sound too friend. She sighed in relief though when Charlotte claimed they usually don't bother two or more people, "Well that's good."
Still she couldn't help looking nervously around.
J. J. blushed, "I umm, wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I was lost in thought so to speak... and when I finally did pay attetion... here I was."

Char laughed at J.J.'s lack of attention but not in a mean way, "It's alright, It happens to the best of us!"

"So you wanna go look for a unicorn?" Charlotte offered with a smile.

J. J. bit her lip. It was probably dangerous and foolish to remain in the forest but...
She was already there, and she did want to see a unicorn, if only once and from a distance...
What the hell!
"Sure," she nodded, a silly, childish smile spreading across her features, "Let's go see us a unicorn."

"Unicorns it is! Let's go..." Char looked around the forest and pointed north, "That way!"

She turned to J.J. with a grin, "Ready?"

J. J. looked into the depth of the forest she was about to head into and swallowed. Once again the thought that this was foolish flashed through her head, but she pushed it back.
Zach always use to call her a wuss, but no more.
Who's the wuss now? she asked her brother in her head, even though, of course, he was miles away and would never know it.
She took a step in the direction that Charlotte pointed and gave her a playful smile, "You coming?"
She felt oddly giddy. J. J. thought she might like being brave.

"Going!" She grinned and followed J.J.

"So what does J.J. stand for?" Char asked as she looked around for any sign of Unicorns. She really wanted to see one and although her parents had shown her a lot of pictures of some, she wanted to see one in real life. For a moment, she thought she spotted one but it was just a shadow and simply ignored it.

J. J. followed Charlotte through the woods looking this way and that looking for any signs of the creature they were hunting -- as well as anything that maybe hunting them. Hey! she may have been trying to be brave but that didn't mean she had to be completely stupid. Stupid people get eaten by werewolves... or whatever else is in the woods.
She grimaced slightly when Charlotte asked what her actual name was.
"Juliet Jessica," she sneered slightly, "I don't like my name a whole lot. Jessica is fine, but Juliet..." she trialed off a moment.
She wondered if Juliet would even be a problem here? Does the wizarding world even know who Shakespeare is?
"It's a name of a character in a really famous Muggle play -- Romeo and Juliet. It was always just a hassle to deal with people quoting the play to me every time I met them, or worse making jokes about waiting for a Romeo, or killing myself over the boy -- that's what Juliet did you know. Killed herself cause Romeo killed himself cause he thought she was dead, but wasn't..."
She trialed off and shook her head. She didn't need explain the whole play that use to be the bane of her existence. Still was if someone new found out her real name.
"Anyways, one day my brother took pity on me, and came up with calling me J. J. and I never looked back."
She smiled sadly at the thought of Zach. She missed him, and her other siblings too, Abby and Simon... but mostly Zachary.
"Do you have any siblings?"

"You do know that Shakespeare was a wizard?" Char said, listening to what J.J. was saying. "What Juliet actually took was the Draught of Living Death but what Romeo did was really stupid too. But anyways, I've heard of the play, watched the muggle film instead of reading and I'm sorry you had to deal with those people but either way, Juliet is a pretty name. And along as you don't do something stupid like she did, you shouldn't listen to what they say. People like those should just grow up." Char said, stopping to look at J.J. "Don't let them get to you," she smiled as she resumed walking.

"And that's really nice of your brother to do," Char nodded. "And sadly, I don't have any but we adopted my cousin James after my aunt and uncle passed away..." Char didn't really like talking about her aunt and uncle and how they passed away. It made her insides churn and she slightly frowned.

All of the sudden she heard movement to her right and thought she heard galloping, she whispered excitedly to J.J., "I think there's a unicorn here!"

"Really?" J. J. thought a moment. That did make sense in away. The Shakespeare thing. The thing Juliet took did sound an aweful lot like magic, "Maybe I can pull that stunt then, live up to my name," she joked. Juliet was a pretty name. Maybe one day she would go by it again. J. J. however worked just as well for her.
"Yeah, Zach's - that's my brother, well the one I was talking about, I have another, and a sister too - specail. One of a kind. I really miss him," she paused for a moment, "That's too bad about your family... but it was a nice thing you did for your cousin."
J. J. heard the galloping and froze.
A unicorn? Could it really be?
"Do you really think so," she breathed taking a cautious step towards the sound.

"That's nice," Char smiled. "Although I consider James my brother at sorts, I wish I had a little sister. Your brother must be real something cause you seem to really love him."

"I think I heard it go this way! Let's go!" She instinctively grabbed J.J.'s hand and pulled her along while running to where she heard the galloping. She came to an instant stop then and in front of them was a pure white unicorn, eating grass from the forest floor. Char let go of J.J.'s hand and her jaw dropped. She couldn't believe it, she had finally seen a unicorn. She giddily jumped in excitement and turned to J.J., "Do you think it'll be okay if I try to pet it?" She whispered.

"I wouldn't know - about the little sister that is. I have an older one; I guess you'd have to ask her if having a little sister is all its cracked up to be," J. J. smiled thinking to herself that Abby's answer would probably be no.
Suddenly Charlotte grabbed her hand and they were running towards the sound of galloping. J. J. stumbled at first, shocked by the sudden gain in speed, but she quickly regained her feet, and kept pace.
Almost as fast as they had started they had stopped. There in front of them was a unicorn. J. J. blinked at the creature in aw. It was more stunning than anything she had imagined it would be. Who needed prince charming? She'd take the unicorn any day.
"Wow," she breathed. She just could not believe it. Beside her Charlotte was jumping up and down with excitement. J. J. shrugged at her, "I guess so..." she stopped and eyed the pointy horn a top of its head, "though I might approach it, you know, slowly - I wouldn't want to startle the poor thing."

"I will," Char nodded affirmatively, determined with touching the unicorn. She quietly and slowly walked towards the animal. It seemed to have noticed she was there and backed up a little.

"No," she frowned. "I won't hurt you, I promise!" She said soothingly.

The unicorn however, left instantly and disappeared into the woods.

"Damn!" Charlotte said loudly and quickly turned to J.J., "Sorry!" she hoped she hadn't scared her with the sort-of swearing she had just done.

Charlotte frowned even more, "I wish I had a unicorn."

J. J. jumped a bit as Charlotte yelled, but the noise had only startled her. She watched as the Unicorn walked away. She felt sad at losing sight of the wondrous creature.
"That's ok," J. J. responded after a moment, "It would be nice to have a Unicorn. They are special creatures aren't they?"
She paused a moment looking at her surroundings.
"So, what else, again, are living in these woods?"

"They are!" Charlotte smiled. "I wished they sold them.... I mean, that sounds bad but I'd treat them well."

"Thestrals, trolls, werewolves and centaurs," Char nonchalantly, still upset that the unicorn had left. "But I'm pretty sure they have muggle creatures too... like bunnies and what not..."

"I get it. It would be neat to have a pet Unicorn..." J. J. shook her head as that phrase made her think of a book she use to read as a child.
She laughed at the thought of bunny's mingling with Unicorn's and Werewolves, "I guess you can't get rid of the bunny's and stuff... What are those animals like... I'm really starting to think I should have taken Care of Magical Creatures. They sound so interesting."

"Well, I just join Care of Magical Creatures... I only know those because they were mentioned in Hogwarts, A History. Sorry I couldn't help you out on that," Char frowned but she quickly turned it into a smile. "You wanna keep searching for Unicorns or you wanna go back inside?"

J. J. paused and thought for a moment.
She was having fun, and who knew when it could happen again. Besides, she hadn't had her full of Unicorns yet.
"Well I'm here anyways," she gave Charlotte a michevious smile, "Let's keep searching."