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On the edges of the Forbidden Forest, Luna Lovegood followed what she presumed to be a wrackspurt. Her Spectrespec glasses allowed her to see the tiny invisible creatures floating through the air, and she desperately wanted to see where they were off to. She did not even notice that she was in the forest until the wrackspurts disappeared and she took her Sepectrespecs off. She looked around curiously, finally realizing her location. Most students would be frightened of the dark part of the forest she had made it to, with enchanted tree branches attacking birds, and eyes from unknown creatures staring from all angles. But Luna didn’t mind.
From far away, she could hear bustling voices. She walked in the direction of the noise and came to a glade. In front of her were long tables, covered in food of all sorts. Centaurs of all ages were dancing and laughing together.
Rather than hiding, Luna walked up to a centaur. Most students would have felt intimidated by the half-horse, half-man that towered above her, but it didn’t faze Luna.
“Excuse me,” she said dreamily, tapping on his shoulder. “What’s going on?”
The centaur, who was holding a glass of purple liquid, turned to Luna happily. “It’s the annual Schippeitaro Feast, of course! We’re celebrating those who saved us from the wrath of the Forest Spirit. Have you not heard the story?”
Luna shook her head, although she was eager to hear it due to her learning-obsessed Ravenclaw personality.
“I would be happy to recount it for you. My name is Icarus, by the way. I wasn’t there, but every centaur knows by now what happened a century ago.”
As Luna sat down, Icarus began his tale.
“Our story starts with a young Hogwarts student, who happened to be wandering around alone near the boundaries of the Forbidden Forest. He was mesmerized by the bodiless voices that chanted the same word over and over: Schippeitaro, Schippeitaro.
“Suddenly, the sound of weeping filled the forest and replaced the chanting. Without a second thought, he hurried through the trees of the Forbidden Forest, toward the noise. The trees parted ways for him, knowing his good intentions.
“The boy finally found the source of the cry: a female sobbing inside a hut surrounded by centaurs. He approached a centaur cautiously, knowing that our kind does not appreciate humans.
“The boy asked what had happened and how he could help. The centaur, who just so happened to be my great-great-grandfather, Killian, I might add,” Icarus said proudly, “explained that nothing could be done. At midnight, the Forest Spirit would be making its annual trip to their home and it would murder a female centaur in the tribe. The Spirit required that they put her in a barrel and leave her in a clearing. Otherwise, it would attack everyone.”
“Couldn’t the tribe just fight?” Luna interrupted politely.
Icarus gave a solemn look. “They had tried to before but the Forest Spirit was the one enemy they could not defeat.”
Luna shivered. It was rare when centaurs lost.
Icarus continued. “After the boy heard the story of the Forest Spirit, Killian expected him to run off in fear. Instead, the boy asked a simple question: Can you tell me who Schippeitaro is? Killian told him Schippeitaro was a dog in their tribe.”
“You have pets?” Luna interjected.
Icarus smiled. “Not quite, but we do occasionally have an innocent stray creature follow us around. Some of us can’t resist feeding them, and then there’s no getting rid of them after that.
“So, the boy asked to borrow Schippeitaro, and he told the female centaur and everyone else to hide. He said he would take care of the Spirit. They were doubtful and did not want to listen to a wizard, but they all agreed that they didn’t have much to lose, so they listened to him.
“The boy told my tribe that he planned to hide and attack, and that they should stay away. Killian followed the boy, though, and watched from afar out of both mistrust and worry. He saw the boy walk to the clearing where the Forest Spirit would appear, lock Schippeitaro in the barrel, and hide in the shadows. At midnight, the Forest Spirit appeared. The giant creature was hauntingly cat-like with an evil grin. It crept up to the barrel and opened it, only to immediately be jumped on and bitten by Schippeitaro. The boy leapt out and cast a spell, stunning the Spirit and watching it dissolve into nothingness.
“Killian was shocked at the boy’s courage and could barely believe it was the end to his tribe’s plight. He revealed himself from his hiding spot and led the boy and Schippeitaro back to the tribe to honor him.”
“We’ve been celebrating ever since!” said a young centaur to Luna’s right. Luna found that dozens of others had gathered around to hear the story.
“To Schippeitaro and Albus Dumbledore!” someone toasted, generating cheers.
“Dumbledore?” Luna asked, startled. “You don’t mean--”
Suddenly, everyone’s attention was turned towards a rustling in the trees. Professor Dumbledore appeared through them and the centaurs cheered. Luna caught Dumbledore’s eye. He gave her a knowing look, acknowledging that she was in the very forest students were forbidden to be in, but well aware that he had done the exact same a hundred years prior. She needn’t worry about getting detention.
Luna stayed for a little longer, eating and talking about wrackspurts. She watched as the centaurs crowded Dumbledore, shaking his hand and thanking him. Eventually she realized the time and thought she must be getting back to Hogwarts. She slipped away from the group unnoticed, sounds of music and laughter growing more distant. Although she wondered where the wrackspurts had gone off to, she was grateful for where they had led her.
Author's Note: The original story was that of Schippeitaro, in which a young boy has to accomplish a task to prove he is heroic. He ends up in a forest where he stays overnight and hears/sees spirits that look like cats chanting about Schippeitaro. He then hears crying and ends up meeting a group of people who are targeted by a Mountain Spirit that kills a maiden in their group every year. The boy remembers the spirits talking about Schippeitaro and figures out that this could be the way to save the girl. In the end, the dog bites the Mountain Spirit (which looks like a cat) on the neck and the boy decapitates it. The community throws a feast for him and the dog every year to commemorate him.
I changed many aspects of the original but stuck with the basic storyline. First, instead of a "Mountain Spirit" I changed it to the "Forest Spirit." Also, in the original the spirits chanted about Schippeitaro to keep him away from the Mountain Spirit but in my version they were actually meant to aid Albus. There was also originally a church that the boy stayed at overnight and it was also the location of the Mountain Spirit's kidnapping, but it didn't feel relevant to my story so I removed it. I also changed the people to centaurs since that fits the wizarding world more accurately.
I felt like Luna was a perfect character to be the audience because I don't doubt that she got herself into these kinds of situations in her years at Hogwarts. She had a tendency to believe some very odd things; most characters in Harry Potter did not believe in creatures like wrackspurts. I could just picture her blindly following something into danger because she so badly wants to know more about them, and then being lucky enough to come across a feast where everyone is kind rather than harmful. I could also easily see her ending up in the Forbidden Forest and not having any fear about it or the dangerous creatures (trolls, giant spiders, etc.) that students are told to stay away from.
Image Information:
- Kommerzielle Bilder from Pixabay
- Schippeitaro from the Violet Fairy Tale book at Wikimedia Commons
- Banner image: Wald Forest Landscape by Kommerzielle Bilder from Pixabay
Bibliography: Schippeitaro from Japanese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901).
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