I brought a ticket to see Less than Jake, but I accidentally got the wrong day because my bloody friend is an idiot. So now I can't go, and I was sitting about doing nothing until I thought I'd make the best of the situation and do something productive. So here's chapter 7 of Unicorn Child.
Please forgive me for the delay. I deserve a beating.
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"You do realise that this is all your fault." Leodiensian snapped as she ripped the brambles from her robes, kicking at the bush angrily.
"My fault!" Draco cried, putting a hand over his heart as he ambled through the forest, trying to keep the fact that he was terrified to himself. Of all of the things they could have had detention doing, he had to say that walking through the forest at midnight looking for a couple of flowers for the fist year Herbology class was at the bottom of the list. He'd have preferred to be hanging by his thumbs in Filch's office.
"Yes- your fault. If you'd just kept your big mouth shut and your big headed friends under control we wouldn't be here!" She hissed.
Every fibre of her being hated the blonde in that moment, and even though she knew that it was quite improbable, she couldn't help but feel that he'd known she'd been afraid of the dark. The forest was damp and eerily silent around them, and they seemed to pick up even the fainted noises in the silence, which made the hairs prick on the back of their necks. Somewhere a twig snapped, and the two of them tensed for a moment, before they breathed out.
"I really preferred you when you were quiet!" he grumbled.
"So you think I'm just going to shut up because you tell me?" She dared, glaring at him even though she knew that she was being far too loud when they were in the middle of a forest. At night.
"Yes." He replied simply. Leodiensian looked as though she was going to reply, and by the look on her face it wasn't going to be pretty.
"Be Quiet, or ya'll disturb summin that dun wanna be disturbed, if ya catch m' drift." Hagrid said over his shoulder, and the girls watched with amusement as Draco paled a few shades and subconsciously shuffled closer to Fang.
Crabbe and Goyle shuffled behind them, looking about them with wide eyes as though expecting it to repel whatever could kill them. They twitched whenever anyone spoke too loud, and Crabbe had yelped when someone accidentally stepped on his foot, and it looked as though he had very nearly wet himself.
Luna, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying herself. She hadn't really spoken as of yet, but whenever either Crabbe or Goyle tripped or became startled her eyes seemed to flash for a moment. Leodiensian was suspicious, and deep down wondered if her friend was more malicious than she had ever given her credit for.
"Righ'," Hagrid sighed, turning towards the teenagers with his crossbow over his shoulder. "You ain't tha best lot fer the job, but I suppose you'll do. Crabbe, Goyle, I dare say that ya'll benefit a little more bein with me than Fang, so you two'll be cumin with me. The rest of ya, you'll take Fang and go lookin in tha' direction." He pointed over his shoulder to a gap between two rather menacing looking trees. Draco swallowed.
"Take these," he said, offering out a handful of what looked like jam jars to Luna, who gave them her complete attention as she cradled the bundle in her arms. "Wen ya see any moondrops jus' pop em in ere and shut tha lid tight." He looked over them for a moment with his beetle black eyes.
Leodiensian was staring off to his left with a detached expression, but she was milky white, which contrasted to her short brown hair in the darkness. Draco's eyes darted through the trees as though they had a mind of their own, and he was shifting his weight a lot as though willing himself to spring out of the path of anything that decided to hurl itself at him. Crabbe and Goyle looked about ready to trip over their own feet, and Luna was holding up one of the jars to her eye as though there was something terribly exciting inside it.
"Don' forget- I dun want ya goin' too deep inta the forest, the deeper ya are the more likely that there's summin in there that dun want'cha there." Either Draco or Leodiensian made a small noise in the back of their throat, although Hagrid couldn't tell which. They had edged a little closer to each other without noticing, and for some reason it seemed to clam each of them down a little. Hagrid let out a deep sigh, and it seemed to rumble through them. Leodiensian made another noise, as her lips moved a little, and Draco swallowed hard.
"Dun go too near the centaurs either, they aint 'ostile or anythin, but they're a little territorial about humans goin into their forest. In fac'-" he seemed to think over telling them, as they seemed frightened enough already. "In fac' they've already sorta- banned us from their par' of the forest, so I dun think you'll ge' a good reception if ya stray too close." He laughed nervously.
Draco's eyes stopped darting about, and fixed on the half giant. Hagrid was a little taken aback with the look, hard and accusing, before they began flickering about again with renewed vigour. The girl moved from his side and latched onto Luna's arm, who seemed a little startled with the contact for a moment before she relaxed and went back to looking around with interest. Crabbe and Goyle looked immensely thankful to be with Hagrid, all loyalty for Draco lost as they edged towards the half giant. Draco scowled, before half jumping as something howled in the distance.
"We'll meet ya righ' back here when you've filled yer jars. Cummon you two- lets get a move on before the real beasties come out, eh?" he joked. No one found it funny. He looked around at the others nervously before waving a dustbin lid sized hand in the other direction and turning to walk away. Crabbe and Goyle couldn't get fast enough to reach his side, and the other three were left with a dog they all knew was afraid of his own shadow.
Draco swallowed, and tried to refresh his parched throat and his tongue that suddenly felt like sandpaper. The trees looked even more frightening now, great big looming shadows casting over them with faces in their rotting bark. He looked at the other two, secretly wondering which one he could throw in front of himself if something attacked him, before he began to walk uneasily in the direction that they had been told.
…
The snow had given up for the first time since they had arrived, almost. Serge lay on the same fallen tree that he had lounged on for the past month, but this time Kurt wasn't standing before the space between two similar trees as he had been before, but was sitting and sulking. He looked down at the stick between his hands, and sighed.
"Stop your blobbering und get to vurk," Von Schreiber snapped from his tree trunk, and the Russian growled at him. The Germans hat was over his face and his hands were behind his head, and he looked far too relaxed for Schriov's liking. No one had a right to be happy when he was miserable, even if that person could very easily kill him.
"Fin zen! You try if you zink your so damned smart!" he bellowed, throwing the stick to the German, who lazily tipped his hat back and looked at it with distaste.
"Nein danke," he replied, before replacing his hat and shifting his weight to a more comfortable position. Schirov growled, and marched over to pick up the stick again before sulking back to where he had been before.
He looked down at his hands glumly. He was a failure to his family. His father had taught him, as his father's father had taught him before, that you never questioned the Divining Rod. Ever. Yet here he was sitting in the snow because he'd finally, for the first time in his life, been defeated. The magical paths had all lead to the same place, whether animal tracks or human, whether old or new. It seemed that all of the magic was collecting somehow, and he knew that it was important to finding the boy, but he just couldn't figure out how.
All he wanted was to find the boy and perhaps make sure that Von Schreiber met with an extremely unfortunate accident on his way back to Germany. Sudden freak snow falls and avalanches were common at this time of year, and deadly to those who didn't know how to escape. It really wasn't much to ask for.
Suddenly the stick began to vibrate, making the fur on his mittens quake and stand on end like a frightened cat. He jerked to his feet, startled by the sudden movement after having gone so long with so little, and let his hands be guided in the direction that the Rod wanted to take.
The German slowly tipped the rim of his hat back and looked out into the harsh white surrounding them to see his partner up on his feet again, slowly revolving in a circle. He'd long since decided that that other man was deluded for thinking that a stick would find the boy, but he hadn't been able to stop the sudden excitement that bubbled within him whenever the Russian seemed to pick up anything. He infolded his long, lean limbs and slipped the knives out from his boots in readiness for more walking through deep snow, covering his face in the balaclava before taking a few slow steps forward. He'd learnt from numerous false scares like this one that it wasn't vital he ready himself when most of the time he'd only sit back down again, but the Russian seemed like a huge hound with a scent.
Kurt tried to keep a good hold on the rod as he ambled further through the thick snow, unaware of the rest of his surroundings, but it was difficult with thick fur mittens on. The rod was vibrating in his hands like metal being attracted to a strong magnet, and every so often it slipped a little further out of his grasp. To compensate he increased his pace with bounding strides, though he could feel the strain on his legs with the snow on his boots weighing him down.
Serge looked up from beneath his hat to see the hulking shape of his partner growing smaller, slowly merging into the endless expanse of white and trees. He'd found soon after beginning to walk that his knives were more hindrance than help, as they sank into the snow along with his feet, and had to retract them. The carpet beneath him swallowed his legs like an ocean, and he had to wade through the thick snowfall as though a child on the beach. His murky blue eyes narrowed amongst the shadows beneath the brim of his hat, and without notice a long yellow wand was in his hand, and he was silently melting the snow around his feet, which soaked through his trousers with pleasant warmth he hadn't felt in weeks. Slowly he began to catch up.
The Rod finally broke lose from the Russian's hands and Kurt stumbled a few feet in the snow before he began pushing himself forward with all of his strength, heading straight toward where his rod had imbedded itself in the snow a few hundred paces off. He'd only once seen the rod act in such a way before, and that was when the rabbit he was hunting as a child had run into his burrow and Kurt had been standing right on top of it. He couldn't help but feel pleasure and satisfaction, knowing for sure that it was only a matter of time now until they found the accursed boy and he could go back to doing what he liked.
In the corner of his eye he could see the German pulling up beside him, his long legs somehow managing to keep pace with his own through the snow. However, he soon found that Serge was using magic to melt his path, but refrained from telling him that it would disturb more snow and alert more to his presence only because of the hungry look in the German's eyes. Von Schreiber was perhaps the only person he had ever been truly afraid of, though he'd never admit to it.
Kurt glanced up from his feet to see the air around the rod shimmering, and the magic so thick around the point that it brushed over his skin and slunk up his nostrils like a thick, greasy smell. Immediately his legs sprung with his reflexes, and he crushed his shoulder into the side of the Russian, who gave a grunt as they both fell in a heap behind a large patch of dying ferns.
"What D-?" Serge slapped a hand over the Russian's mouth to cut off his enraged roar, the slick leather half gripping his beard, and with the other hand his wand was pressed into the man's jugular. Kurt tensed and glared from beneath his snow covered eyebrows, thinking that if this was the end he would at least give a fight, but stopped when he realised that the German was peering at something else with such alertness that he was disconcerted. He craned his head to see himself, looking over the ferns and the other man, to find a sight that made him hold his breath in fear of being seen.
The air was shimmering like oil in a puddle, seeming to snake and shimmer about the trees and cast different colours in the light, and the magic was so potent that it made him want to be sick. He was distantly aware of the German's grip loosening as the man took a more hidden position, and he himself moved in caution as he watched the creature emerging from the slick of magic.
The great white hippogriff finally brought its hindquarters from the magic after seeing no danger, and its hoofs crunched in the fresh snow. It was a large male with its feathers puffed with the cold, proud and mighty, but it fell from a direct shot from the Russian and crumbled, lifeless, to the ground.
The two men stood from their hiding place, staring at the slick of magic that was still faintly shimmering when looked at with the side of the eye. One large and wild like a bear, the other dishevelled yet with the dangerous air of a leopard, they both had renewed, hungry fire in their eyes.
"It seems dat dis child iss not as clever as dey all tink." Von Schreiber took down his balaclava to reveal a crooked, frightening smile. "Let us go thru before it closes, vatever it is."
The Russian nodded, wearing his own feral grin. "I can almost smell hees death in de air."
…
Hagrid ambled through the forest, looking about him into the shadows that seemed to move about him. He'd sent Crabbe and Goyle back with four jars filed with moondrops hours before, yet since then he'd seen no sign of the other three children he had sent off into the forest. He knew the forest almost like the back of his hand, but even he knew that it was extremely dangerous to venture too far in at night. If any of them had gotten lost it could take days to find them, and even then there would be a chance that something else had found them before him. His massive form shuddered and he re-positioned his crossbow just thinking about it. Not only that, he could lose his job. Their deaths would forever lay heavy on his heart, and many people's lives would be ruined.
He didn't think himself a bad person, not at all. Yet bad things always seemed to happen to him.
He scratched his wiry beard as he moved deeper into the forest. If he didn't find them in an hour, he'd go back and tell the headmaster that they'd gone missing. He could only hope to find them in time. Before it was too late.
…
"I think I see some," Luna said in the silence, absently stepping over a large root while the other two had to scramble over it, Draco clutching his trousers in a vein attempt at keeping them clean.
Leodiensian felt relief flood through her with those few words, the thought of even the smallest amount of light a relief after ambling through the darkness for too long. Draco gave her a queer look as she sighed, feeling some small reward in her discomfort as he ignored the stings and scratches that marred his legs, and the pain in his feet from his expensive shoes.
They broke through the trees and into a small clearing. The faint sounds of running water hummed along with the cracking of undergrowth beneath their feet, and soon they found themselves walking across a small patch of grass toward a cluster of blue lights on the other side of the clearing.
"It smells of soap," Luna said merrily as she opened one of the jars with a sucking sound and began gently picking moondrops and placing them carefully into the jar. Both Draco and Leodiensian opened their jars and began pulling out handfuls of the flowers in the hope that they could get out of the forest quicker, neither realising that they were mirror images of each other.
"You're an idiot, Lovegood," Draco said hollowly as he ripped up another handful and stuffed them into the jar. Leodiensian gave him a dark look.
"Shut up Draco." She snapped half-heartedly. "You're right Luna. We used to have Sud bushes in our garden a while back. They grow near water, which is probably what we can hear, and their seeds are covered in foam that's used for making soap."
"It reminds me of my Owl." Luna replied.
"Lovegood just shut up will you. It's bad enough that I'm stuck here with you two simpletons without you reminding me that you're there constantly." Draco's nose creased in distaste as one of the flowers began to ooze a pearly liquid over his fingers, before he threw it over his shoulder and picked up another one.
"I wonder if there're any werewolves about," Luna mused aloud.
The other two tensed.
"Moondrops only grow near werewolves, so there must be at least a few."
"Shut up Luna," the other two snapped, before glaring at each other and continuing to stuff their jars.
Silence stretched after that, broken only by the sounds of the stream nearby and the occasional unidentifiable noise that made Draco tense. Soon they had grown used to the noises, and the task of picking flowers took all of their attention, fatigue finally overtaking their fear. Even Luna's great blue eyes were heavily lidded after a while, and their fingers worked numbly until they had filled all of the jars and they all warily got to their feet.
"Ah…" Draco said as they stood, peering about the clearing as he swallowed hard.
"What?" Leodiensian asked, smothering a yawn in her fist.
"We're lost," Luna said casually, repositioning the jars in her arms and looking about the clearing with a detached, dreamy expression. "Draco Malfoy has forgotten which way we came from, and we might not be able to get back before the beasties Hagrid mentioned come out to play."
Draco ran a suddenly shaking hand through his blonde locks, while the other girl looked out around her like a cornered animal when Draco didn't deny it. None of them wanted to see what beasties played, and they definitely didn't want to be a part of it.
As the silence stretched Luna smiled and peered down at her jars in a loving way. "These will light our way at least. How about we play a game? Lets spin around and point, and wherever we point to, we go."
Draco and Leodiensian looked at her with twin expressions of queer disbelief, before Draco shrugged, not liking the idea, but liking the idea of staying even less. Luna smiled and tenderly put down her jars, before she took two paces back and began to spin with one arm stretched out, and came to land on a patch of twisted trees and rotting undergrowth much like the rest of the forest.
"I-I'm sure Hagrid will find us eventually," The brunette said shakily as they began walking in the direction that Luna had chosen. "He's supposed to know the forest very well… it's only a matter of t-time now…"
"The oaf can't be completely useless…" Draco half agreed, once more clutching the material of his trousers as they broke into the forest and became surrounded by darkness and the twisted shadows of trees and other things that they cared not to think about. All three shuffled closer to each other as they walked deeper into the wood, unable to keep in a straight line as they wound around the trees and ditches that were scattered hap-hazardously in the darkness.
The forest seemed to be a constant replay of the same image. The trees all looked the same and the darkness was always moving, and after a long while their legs were aching and the glow from the moondrops was the only small comfort they had left.
"This is hopeless," Draco muttered, ripping his leg free from where it had caught on a low branch. "We could be going in circles and we wouldn't know about it. Let's just find somewhere we can stay for a bit."
"Aww… is little Draco tired? " Leodiensian mocked.
"Well, if you want to keep going be my guest. I'm just smart enough to realise when it's best to give up." He returned, glaring at her.
"Stopping is a good idea, Draco Malfoy," Luna said sleepily. "I would quite like to stop."
The other girl sighed and nodded; making Draco smile in triumph at the small battle won against the girl he had dubbed his newest foe. They continued walking for a few minutes, this time looking under the roots of trees and down ditches to find a safe place to stay. The silence washed over them as they became used to it… until something new and frightening broke the peace.
The sounds of footsteps echoed about the trunks of the trees surrounding them, but they weren't their own. All three tensed and looked about themselves with a mixture of fear and hope, but none could bring themselves to move in case they were spotted.
Soon after, the cause behind the disturbance came into view as two men wound around a tree a few hundred paces off before disappearing behind the trunk of another, though one look was enough for the three students to realise that they were dangerous. The man leading seemed almost the size of Hagrid, with wild hair protruding from the deep hood of his great patchwork robes. He held a forked stick between his hands, and seemed to follow wherever it pointed.
The man behind was just as frightening. He was smaller than the giant he followed, but his height was hard to distinguish, as he seemed to skulk about the trees like a cat. His face was shadowed and he wore dark clothes that merged into the forest, and the thin light from the moon glinted off blades as he walked.
Luna grabbed the other girl's hand and they crept behind the trunk of a huge tree to their right, with Draco following behind. None of them seemed to be breathing in fear of being caught, and only Luna dared to look around the trunk every so often to see if the two men were still there. After minutes of tense silence Luna looked back at the other two.
"They're gone," she whispered, and the three of them relaxed visibly.
"Who do you think they were?" the other girl asked. The other two didn't reply, both indulging in their own fearful theories. The silence after the two men's footsteps had disappeared seemed suffocating, and Draco soon found himself sweating. Leodiensian had shut her eyes against the darkness and was trying to convince herself that she was safe.
"We must follow them," Luna said after a moment.
"Are you mad!" Draco hissed, looking about himself fearfully. "Did you see the size of the one at the front? And who would be crazy enough to come into the forbidden forest anyway? They're probably nutcases."
"We're in the forest," Luna reminded him.
"Yes, but we didn't have any choice, did we?" he snapped.
"If you hadn't been so freaking frightened Malfoy, you'd have realised that the one at the front was carrying a Dowsing rod." Leodiensian said, her eyes screwed shut.
"So?" he said, "I wouldn't care if he was carrying a huge rubber duck."
"Don't you see?" she strained. "Dowsers use those rods to find things, like gold or people… or the way out."
Draco peered from behind the tree in the direction that the two men had come, suddenly less afraid. "You mean they might be able to get out?" he asked.
Leodiensian nodded.
"I am glad you agreed with me, Draco Malfoy. I will remember this for the rest of my life." Luna whispered, smiling dreamily as she stepped from behind the tree and began stalking quietly through the undergrowth. The remaining two looked at each other from the side of their eyes before looking away and following the girl in front.
Never in his life had Draco thought he would agree with Lovegood. He vowed to wash his mouth out the moment he got back to the castle… if he got back.
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I know nothing much happened, but the next chapter should be good.
Thanks to all the people who asked me to update. It was your enthusiasm that made me realise that this story is worth continuing.
Please R&R!
-Blue XxX
