Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Twilight, blah, blah, blah. You know the stuff

This is my first story ever; enjoy reading and please review…constructive criticism is appreciated.

Rubeus Hagrid was taking his regular stroll through the Forbidden Forest, his dog, Fang, at his side. It was only afternoon, but the dense canopy the trees made over head made it seem darker.

Fang suddenly stopped and growled, pawing at the dirt. Puzzled, Hagrid stopped also. Fang sniffed at the ground and started following some scent that he'd picked up cautiously. After a few minutes, he barked and trotted up ahead. There, Hagrid saw it. Lying on the forest floor was the white body of a unicorn.

But the last time this had happened, it had been Quirrel, drinking the blood to satisfy his master, Lord Voldemort.

Suspicious, Hagrid took a closer look. The dead unicorn's throat had been neatly slit, two puncture-marks were the only injuries. There was a little bit of silver blood oozing out of the cuts, but everything else was clean. The markings on the ground showed that the animal had put up a fight, and Hagrid was shocked to see that the unicorn's horn, a valuable potion ingredient and a very worthy weapon of defense, had been shattered. Hagrid got up from where he kneeled beside the creature's head and surveyed the surrounding area through narrowed eyes. Professor McGonagall would want to know about this. Hagrid turned quickly to leave, Fang at his heels.

"Hagrid!" a voice called as he burst through the Great Hall. He turned to see the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, who, along with Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and a few others, were at Hogwarts to make up for missing the last year.

"Oh, Hullo, Harry." Hagrid panted,

"What's wrong, Hagrid?" the boy asked, his green eyes full of concern.

"eh? Oh, nothing…" Hagrid waved his hand dismissively, "Just a dead unicorn…"

Harry's brow furrowed at this news, "that's hardly 'nothing', Hagrid…remember last time-!"

"I know, I know! I'm off t' tell Professor McGonagall…" Hagrid started to turn away, but Harry said, "I'll come, too. Binns won't notice I'm missing." He ignored Hagrid's protests, and marched off toward the headmistress's office.

"Diagon Alley!" Harry said confidently and the two gargoyles that guarded the entrance of the office sprang back. Hagrid followed Harry, mumbling incoherently.

Harry knocked the door and upon hearing Professor McGonagall inside say, "enter," opened the door.

"Harry, Hagrid. How may I help you?" McGonagall sat at the headmistress' desk, Albus Dumbledore watching with slight concern over his half-moon spectacles in his portrait.

Hagrid nodded his scraggly haired head toward the former headmaster in greeting and said gruffly, "found a dead unicorn out in the forest."

McGonagall and a few other former headmasters and headmistresses sat up straighter in their chairs, "Oh?" She said, raising her eyebrow.

"Yeah…erm, can't be much though, righ'? I mean, You-Know-Wh- er, Tom Riddle bein' dead an' all…"

"But what if there's a new threat?" Harry added quickly.

"I see what you're thinking, Potter. However-"

"Th' thing is," Hagrid interrupted nervously, "th' attacker didn't make much o' a mess. Unicorn's horn was shattered, an' there wasn't much blood anywhere… there was two punctures at th' throat. I reckon the poor thing put up a good fight, too."

"Oh my. Although, I daresay, the horn was shattered by the Reducto Spell." McGonagall said, "However-"

But she was interrupted once again by Hagrid, who was now twisting a bit of his coat in his hands, "No, the Reducto would'n have jus'…Wha' I mean is…th' horn was'n gone, or smashed t' smithereens like anythin' a spell coulda done… It was jus' broken."

"Oh. I see." McGonagall said. She and Harry were both at loss of what to think now so she said, "How about we keep an eye on this? If anymore dead creatures turn up, notify me immediately, Hagrid. There is nothing else to do at the moment."

"But Professor!" Harry protested,

"Harry," Dumbledore said from his portrait, "she's right. We do not know what the menace could possibly be. However, it may do some good to warn the students…just a caution, and a reminder to stay out of the Forbidden Forest."

"good idea. I shall notify the heads of Houses. You are dismissed –and I know you would like to look further into this, but please do not do anything…rash, Potter."

Once outside the office, Harry said goodbye to Hagrid and set off angrily toward the Gryffindor tower. He said the password, 'wolfs bane', a little more forceful than necessary and finding all his friends sitting around the fire, took a seat and told them what had happened. By the time he had finished ranting about how unfair it was to NOT do anything, he was quite drained of all anger, and was ready to hear what the others had to say.

"Well," Hermione Granger, Harry's bushy, brown-haired friend said thoughtfully, "Professor McGonagall is right. There isn't anything to do until more evidence surfaces that it really IS some magical menace."

"Oh, come off it!" Ron Weasley, who was on the same side as Harry said, "We should go and see for ourselves!"

"I suppose you actually saw the unicorn?" Neville Longbottom put in.

"Well, er, no." Harry had left that part out.

"Then you can't make so many assumptions about what happened, Harry!" Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister as well as Harry's girlfriend said, "Hagrid is the only one who has actually seen it."

"Exactly." Hermione agreed.

"Fine. We'll see though; there will be another dead animal in the Forbidden Forest in a few days, I think." Ron said, and Harry was surprised he hadn't crossed his arms and stuck his nose in the air.

"Then we will see." Hermione muttered, turning back to her Potion's essay.

"You don't think it's a problem? That a Unicorn just randomly got killed? Hermione, the horn of a unicorn is one of the most indestructible weapons of all time."

"I know that." Hermione said serenely.

"But Ron, if it's so 'indestructible', why would McGonagall think the Reducto shattered the horn?" Neville pointed out,

"Hermione, please explain to these idiots." Ginny said.

Said person sighed, "you're only half right, Ron. You should listen more in class. Although the horn of a Unicorn is as you put it 'indestructible', that only applies when people are trying to break it. It's complicated, but the horn could be broken as simply as stepping on it. The more the force, the harder the horn becomes."

There was a silence that Neville interrupted by saying, "well, then wouldn't it break from the wind, or something?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "like I said, Neville, it's complicated. But Harry's right about one thing, whatever killed the Unicorn could be potentially dangerous –if it killed the Unicorn by only wounding it twice…"

"Hey, you don't suppose it was a vampire, do you?" Neville asked,

"Oh, please," Ginny scoffed, "vampires? Really Neville? That's insane; vampires only drink human blood."