Prologue
"Look—" he murmured, holding out his arm to stop Malfoy.
Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer.
It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves.
Harry had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered….Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. Harry, Malfoy, and Fang stood transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered it's head in the wound on the animal's side, and began to drink it's blood.
"AAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Malfoy let out a terrible scream and bolted—so did Fang.
From here, we know what happened to Harry, but what about Draco Malfoy?
Shall I tell you?
Draco and Fang ran back to Hagrid as fast as they could. All the while, screaming bloody murder. Fang barked madly, gaining speed and left Draco alone in the forest.
"Stupid dog! Don't leave me—oof!" Draco tripped, falling on the forest floor. He stood, wiping the dirt of his hands and his trousers. He sat on the large, smooth stone he tripped over and pulled out his wand. "Lumos," he muttered, holding his wand over his foot. His ankle didn't look to bad. He could walk. Barely.
Draco stood and looked about. Where had Fang gone off too? Draco thought. "Stupid dog," he muttered, he sent up a red spark. Sitting back on the stone, he looked about.
The wind moaned and Draco jumped up again, wand out and ready to send up another spark if need be.
The stone glowed and a cracking sound penetrated the silence. Draco stared at the stone for a moment before looking at the top of it. "Lumos," he said. Holding the light over the stone, he found words:
HIC IACIO OCTAVIA NUNQUAM FUTURUS PRIVATUS
DCCCXCV-CMXII
Draco didn't know what this meant, but his curiosity, surprisingly, overcame his caution and he examined the area around it. Parts of the stone looked lighter than the rest. Looking on the ground, he found a broken chain.
Why would a stone have a chain on it?
"Malfoy, where's Harry?"
Draco spun around to see Granger, Longbottom, and Hagrid. Fang was panting beside him.
"Oh…" he said, realizing his mistake. "I ran off without him."
Hagrid gave him a nasty look that made him shiver. "Neville, you stay here with Fang and this idiot. Hermione, come with me." Hagrid strode quickly through the trees and Granger had to run to keep up with him.
Longbottom quivered where he stood. Draco swore that Longbottom was going to pee his pants. But not wanting to be told off by Hagrid again, Draco did nothing. "Come here and help me read this."
Longbottom blinked and moved closer hesitantly. Looking at the words he shrugged. "I don't know what it says, but I can say that it's Latin. I can tell you the dates, though."
"All right, then. What are the dates? Where are the dates?"
Longbottom pointed at the letters DCCXCV-CMXII. "That says eight hundred ninety-five to nine hundred twelve. Why'd you stop at a coffin?"
Draco paled. "Coffin?"
"Well, it looks like a very old coffin to me."
"I thought it was just a stone?"
"As smooth as it is? And the dates? It looks like the dates of someone's life. Whoever it is, they didn't live long."
Draco didn't like this. How did I not get that? "Well," Draco said. "I guess you do have a brain in there. Of all things I'd expect you to remember, I didn't think you'd remember how to read Latin."
"I don't, I just know how to tell the dates because my Gran uses Latin numerals all the time at home. If I wanted to know what time it was, I had to remember the numerals."
"Weird."
The trees rustled and the two boys jumped. Hagrid, Granger, and Potter came through. Potter's brow was furrowed in deep thought. Draco didn't want to know what was going through Potter's head.
"Let's get back before we get separated again," Hagrid said. They went back to the school and to bed.
Draco soon forgot about the coffin he found that night.
I was going to wait to post this until it was done, but it's almost finished, so...why not? :)