Chapter 11: The Clocked Figure

Heidi was currently preoccupied with cursing Norbert in the most colorful variation of words she could muss, while trying not to glare too much in Diana's general direction seeing as she was sure she'd kill her sister this time, along with the Malfoy brat.

McGonagall had dragged the four children down to her study on the first floor and had called Snape there too.

"So, you say mister Malfoy was wandering the top floors of the Astronomy tower?" Snape asked in a seemly uncaring tone.

"And he claims to have gone there with the soul intention of catching Weasley while he was sneaking a dragon inside the castle," McGonagall added.

"Is that so, Mister Malfoy?" Snape turned towards his student, a relatively calm expression on his face if you don't count the eyes, which were glowing with rage.

"Yes," Draco answered in barely a whisper, but it still carried around the silent room.

"I see," Snape glared at his student for a few more seconds and then turned his head towards the three Gryffindor girls who were sitting silently on chairs in the corner. "And your students?" Asked Snape.

"I caught them wandering the Astronomy tower about the same time as Mister Malfoy was. You still haven't explained to me what it was that you were doing there." Minerva turned towards her pupils and crossed her hands over her chest. "Well!"

Hermione started trembling when the two teachers turned to look at them, Diana burst into incontrollable tears while Heidi tried desperately not to let any emotion make its way on her face as she struggled to answer the teachers.

"Our mother's birthday is coming up soon and Diana had made her a present, a picture book with places in the castle. We spent the entire week trying to finish it so we could send it to her tomorrow with Blanch, but when Diana checked on it this evening it was nowhere to be found. Since tomorrow is our mother's birthday, we had no time to make a new one, so we went out looking for it. Hermione here-" she gestured at her friend "-tried to stop us, and got caught outside the Gryffindor common room because the portrait went out for a midnight stroll, so she had no other choice but to come along." It wasn't all lies, after all, tomorrow was indeed Petunia's birthday, but they weren't planning on sending her a picture book. She just hoped that Hermione would be smart enough to go along with her plan.

McGonagall looked doubtful, as per expected, Heidi didn't actually think she would believe them from the first try. "Is that true, Miss Granger?"

And here was the moment of truth. If Hermione didn't back her story up they were going to be in so much trouble (especially her) that they would wish they were never born, if she did, then things shouldn't be too bad.

Hermione looked torn between lying to her teacher and telling the truth. She knew that contradicting Heidi's story meant a whole lot of trouble for them, and way too much explanations for her liking, but if she got caught while lying to a teacher, there was no telling what consequences that would bring.

"Yes Professor. It's true," Hermione decided on going for the easy road, but only just this once. Heidi inwardly gave a sigh of relief. She knew McGonagall wouldn't have the heart to question her dejected sister and with Hermione backing her up, that was all she needed.

Minerva took one look at Diana and nodded her head in resignation. "Very well, let's say I believe you. That still was not a good enough excuse to be wondering the corridors in the death of night!" she stated sternly. "All of you will serve one day's worth of detention with Mister Filch, and twenty points shell be taken away from Gryffindor, for each! You might have had the best intentions at heart Miss Granger, but that still doesn't justify what you did. You could have patiently waited for the portraits return or come directly to my office and we could have solved this together. Next time I expect you will come and seek me out when you are confronted with a problem of this sort!"

"Yes Professor," Hermione nodded in a slight quivering voice.

"I believe your student is worthy enough to be added to the list, Severus." McGonagall turned towards Snape and raised and expected brow.

Snape shot Draco an icy glare before nodding his head. "Very well."

"You shall be informed of the date and time when you will be serving your detention. Now of to bed with you; and you'd better pray that I don't hear news of you sneaking around or catch you at it again because you won't escape as lightly!"

The girls gave a curt nod and were out the door faster then you could say Quidditch.

"You can stop crying now Diana, we're far enough," Heidi whispered to her sister.

Diana immediately lowered her hands from her eyes and turned to scoop around before asking "Are you sure?"

"Yep," Heidi nodded while Hermione looked at her in aw.

"You were pretending? All that time, you were faking it?" she asked bewildered.

"Of course," answered Diana. "That's how it's always been in our family. If we got caught while doing something bad, I'd start crying, Dudley would start playing the victim and Heidi would come up with a good enough excuse to bail us out."

"I can't believe this," said Hermione shaking her head slightly. "You tricked me?"

"There was no time to tell you," stated Heidi. "And please take in account that if we had told the truth, we would have gotten into a whole lot more trouble then we are now, if we hadn't been expelled that is. This way, we got off easy, you heard McGonagall."

"Yeah, I did. But you made me look like the bad friend that would go rat them out to a teacher!" the bushy haired stated indignantly.

"It was either that or, lying that we got a ransom note from Weasley claiming he had my owl hostage and wanted to force my sister into a date with him," Heidi said jokingly.

Both Hermione and Diana burst into fits of laughter. "That would have gone so wrong for so many reasons."

"I know," nodded Heidi. "And I can't believe we forgot the cloak on top of the Astronomy tower." That was enough to wipe the laugh off the other two's face.

The next day Heidi decided to playing on the sensitive side of her housemates and before anyone got a chance to go to breakfast she gave them a public apology for loosing the 60 points, blurring out the same excuse she had used to placate McGonagall. She of course promised to get the points back this very week, which seemed to complacent her Gryffindor friends who just nodded and told her to make sure she kept her promise. Then the girls hurried of to the Astronomy tower while everyone was at breakfast and retrieved the cloak.

Throughout the next week Heidi, Hermione and Diana did exactly what they told their friends they would and won back the twenty points they had lost each in their favorite subject. For Diana that was Charms, while Hermione and Heidi were having a furious competition on who could answer the most questions in class. All in all, Gryffindor was in the lead and didn't look like it was going to come down anytime soon.

The furious studying didn't stop there. Hermione and Heidi (who still blamed Malfoy, Diana and Hagrid for what happened - mostly Malfoy), would force Diana into studying at least three times a day. Hermione was tutoring her and Neville in Potions and Astronomy while Heidi was tutoring the two in Transfiguration and History of Magic, and Diana was helping Neville out with Charms while the plump boy had agreed to help her out with Herbology.

The weeks passed by in the same old routine and nothing interesting happened up until a week before the exams started when Diana was returning from the library with a pile of books her two…three tutors had asked her to take out. She heard a muffled voice coming from a classroom to her right and edged closer to hear what was going on.

She could hear Quirrell's voice on the other side of the door.

"No — no — not again, please —"

It sounded like someone was threatening the poor man. Diana had no doubt in her mind that it was Snape, though she couldn't hear his voice she knew that anyone who could be that mean towards animals was mean enough to threaten a fellow colleague.

"All right — all right —" she heard Quirrell sob.

In the next second, Quirrell shoved the door open, which nearly squashed Diana against a wall, and ran out of sight. Diana pushed the door back a little and stepped back from the wall, while trying hard not to drop any of the pile of books she had in her hands. She peeked inside the classroom but saw no on in sight, only a slight cracked door stood in the far left corner.

Diana ran back to the common room and rushed her sister and Hermione in the girls' bedroom and told them what she'd heard.

"Snape's done it, then!" cried Diana. "If Quirrell's told him how to break his spell there's nothing that's standing in his way!"

"There's still Fluffy, though," said Hermione.

"Nope, I think he already knew how to get pass that one," Heidi said annoyed.

"How can you be sure?" asked Diana puzzled.

"Don't you think it odd that what Hagrid wants the most is a dragon and then wham, someone comes and gives him a dragon's egg? I mean that's one big miracle chance that only happens about once every decade or so, and you'll have to excuse me, but I rarely believe in miracles."

"Oh, my god," Hermione paled dramatically.

"Wait a second!" Diana protested. "Hagrid would never tell someone how to get pass Fluffy!"

"Like he didn't tell us that he retrieved the stone before it was stolen or mentioned Nicolas Flamel, yes, I'm positive he wouldn't tell a soul," said Heidi sarcastically.

"But, but-"

"Oh, give it a rest will you!" snapped Heidi. "Hagrid is not a reliable person! You tell a secret to him and there's no telling if he won't blur it out the next morning, intentionally or not!"

"But-"

"We're going back to study!" Heidi said in a final tone. "Our exams are due to start in a week's time and we sure as hell are not gonna fail them because of your unhealthy curiosity!"

The next morning at breakfast four notes were delivered by owl to Hermione, Heidi, Diana and Draco, all containing the exact same message:

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight.

Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.

Professor McGonagall

Heidi was a tad angry with the professor for wasting them a night's worth of study with worthless detentions; while Diana and Hermione didn't complain, feeling like they deserved what was coming to them.

The three girls made their way down the marble steps and towards the great hall at eleven o'clock where they met Filch, Missis Norris and Malfoy.

"Follow me," said Filch. He lit a lamp and led them out onto the castle grounds where he started making his way towards Hagrid's hut.

Hermione and the twins were sticking close to Filch while Draco was careful to walk a little way behind them. Diana had Missis Norris securely tucked in her embrace and was patting the cat lightly on her head, who seemed to appreciate the gesture greatly.

"Sorry Diana," they heard Filch say. "If it weren't for the Malfoy brat I would have let you go with polishing the trophy room with your wands, but I couldn't do that with him around." He really did sound like he meant it. Diana couldn't help as a wave of anger flooded her veins and she turned to give Draco a reproachful glare. They came to a halt in front of Hagrid's hut, where the giant was waiting for them.

"Abou' time," he said. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Diana, 'Eidi, Hermione?"

Filch took his cat from Diana, turned on his heals and left the group without another word.

The four kids turned expectantly towards Hagrid who was watching them thoughtfully.

"Ri't now, I s'pose yes all know where 'bout to go in the forest so-" Hagrid started but Malfoy cut him off.

"The forest?" he repeated, and he didn't sound quite as cool as usual. "We can't go in there at night — there's all sorts of things in there — werewolves, I heard."

Diana's eyes lit up at the concept of meeting a werewolf while Hermione and Heidi tensed besides her.

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts," said Hagrid fiercely. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay fer it."

"But this is servant stuff; it's not for students to do. I thought we'd be copying lines or something, if my father knew I was doing this, he'd—"

"—tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts," Hagrid growled. "Copyin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out. If yeh think yer father'd rather you were expelled, then get back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on."

Draco didn't move. He looked at Hagrid furiously, but then bowed his head.

"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

Hagrid guided them towards the edge of the forest where they stopped and he pointed at a silver substance (that looked suspiciously like silver mercury), lying on the ground.

"See this here is unicorn blood," he stated.

Diana gasped and clapped her hands to her mouth, looking positively sick.

"There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

"But, surely there must be something we can do!" Diana protested looking desperate.

"We have ter find the poor thing first," said Hagrid.

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" asked Draco, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid. "An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions."

Diana's eyes flashed and before Draco could utter a single word she grabbed a hold of his sleeve and started dragging him towards the forest.

"We're going this way, and we're taking Fang!" she shouted at the others. "Fang!" The boarhound hurried after her obediently.

"Wait, Diana!" Hagrid tried to shout after her, but to no avail. "If yeh finds the unicorn, send up green sparks, an' if ye're in trouble, send up red sparks! Be careful!" He shouted after them but the forms of Diana, Draco and Fang were already diapering into the forest.

"Right," Hagrid turned towards the two remaining girls. "Let's go." He started walking in the opposite direction from which Diana and Draco had diapered in looking whither then a ghost.

"Don't worry Hagrid, Diana'll be fine," Heidi assured. "Malfoy on the other hand…"

------

Draco was definitely not going to come out of this trip alive, and it had nothing to do with the ominous creature that was killing of unicorns, but rather the girl in front of him who was blowing steam out of her nostrils. Diana dragged the boy along the path for ten minutes or so without uttering a single word, up until they came to a clearing of sorts where she stopped in her tracks, spun on her heals and glared at the Malfoy heir like he was something fowl on the tip of her shoe.

"I'm only gonna say this once," she growled in a threatening manner. "You pull a stunt like that on me again and I'll make sure you enter the hospital wing in a coma! Understand!"

"Diana, I seriously didn't mean to get you in trouble, I thought it was Weasley who wanted to get rid of the dragon, I wouldn't of said a word if I had known it was you, honestly!" Draco said all this in a very fast, almost desperate voice, and had a distressed expression on his face to match his state of mind.

"I did not want to get rid of Norbert!" she said through gritted teeth. "I was forced to get rid of him!"

"I'm really sorry, honestly I-"

"Shut up! I would seriously throttle you right now if I didn't have a unicorn murdering bastard to deal with! So you better pray we find him before I lose my patience with you."

Draco nodded gulping and lowered his head to the ground.

"Right! Let's go catch ourselves a killer! Come on Fang!" Diana spun around and started following the bloody path which the unicorn had left behind with Fang walking faithfully at her heals. Draco sighed in resignation and hurried after the two.

------

"I was wondering," Heidi's soft voice broke through the silence of the forest. "What could be so fast, or strong enough to slay a unicorn?"

"D'now," answered Hagrid truthfully. "I never knew one ter be hurt before."

They were walking along a path among the trees, with Hagrid in the front and Hermione and Heidi bringing up the rear.

"You all right, Hermione?" Hagrid whispered. "Don' worry, it can't've gone far if it's this badly hurt, an' then we'll be able ter — GET BEHIND THAT TREE!"

Heidi grabbed a hold of Hermione's sleeve and dragged her down behind a tree trunk while Hagrid took out an arrow and filled it in his crossbow looking around wildly. Something was slithering down a pack of dead leaves nearby and making and awful amount of racket. Hagrid was peering up at the dark path, but there was nothing in sight, and the noise subsided after a couple of seconds.

"I knew it," Hagrid murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be."

They walked more slowly, ears straining to catch any kind of sound, up until they heard a racked ahead.

-------

Diana was getting fairly frustrated what with nothing but trees in the stinking forest. What was it that was so dang dangerous about this place she'd never guess! She was still contemplating on whether to strangle Malfoy or send a good hex his way when a squinting sort of sound made her and her two companions stop in their tracks. Draco reached for Fangs collar and dug in his pocket for his wand while Diana looked around for anything out of the ordinary.

There, struggling with a massive tree branch was the most enormous spider Diana had ever seen. Diana stood gaping at it in pure fascination while Draco looked ready to scream and run for his life.

"Diana," said the boy in a quivering voice. "I think we should call Hagrid."

"Don't be such a scaredy-cat!" snapped Diana. She turned back towards the spider, which had gone deathly still after hearing them talk, and slowly made her way towards it.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not gonna hurt you," assured Diana. She stopped in front of the treetop and slowly reached out a hand to touch one of the spider's enormous legs. "My name's Diana Potter," she gave the spider and encouraging smile as she slowly trailed the tip of her fingers across one of its massive leg. "I'm going to get you out of there," she assured.

Diana slowly reached inside her pocket and pulled out her wand. She lifted it up level with her eyes and showed it to the spider, indicating that she was not going to use it to harm him. "I'm going to levitate this tree branch with my wand. You just hang in there, okay?"

The spider just stood stoic in place, not giving any sign at all that he had heard her. Diana pointed her wand at the tree truck and whispered "Wingardium Leviosa." The three gave a soft snap and the spider recoiled slightly but Diana gave it a reassuring smile as she slowly lifted the massive chunk of tree off the spider's leg.

"There, how do you feel?" She asked after setting the bit of wood a few strides away from them. Her face fell when she saw the spiders crushed leg. "Hmm, not too well I see," she chewed her lips nervously while searching through her pockets for anything that could be of help. She pulled out a gray colored tissue and showed it to the spider.

"I'm gonna use this to clean up the wound. Aguamenti!" She spilled water al over the tissue and slowly traced the moist fabric over the spider's injured leg. Said creature jumped back slightly but stayed relatively still.

"There," she nodded in satisfaction. "Draco, do you have a tissue on you?"

Draco who had been stuck gaping at her for the past five minutes suddenly snapped his head up and turned to look the girl in the eyes, those beautiful hazel eyes…

"Yeah," he hastily searched his pockets and pulled out an expensive looking piece of fabric embroidered in Slytherin colors. "Here!" He handed the tissue over to Diana who took it with a grateful smile.

"Thanks," she nodded before turning back towards the spider. "I'm going to use this to dress the wound." She gestured at the tissue. Draco cringed slightly at having his expensive stuff used on a spider of all things, but held his thong. Diana might not know what she was dealing with but he most certainly knew, and he wasn't kin on evoking the spider's wrath.

"There! All better," Diana nodded approvingly at the now bandaged leg. "Think you can walk?" Draco was positive the spider couldn't understand a word she was saying, so, of course, he was stunned speechless when the spider staggered to its feet and took two tentative steps back from them, but the next thing that it did was life scaring: it gave them a curt bow!

"Your welcome," Diana bowed in return and the spider turned and walked clumsily deep into the forest.

"That was…something," Draco muttered in lack of better word. Diana gave a soft chuckle at seeing his god-smacked expression and rolled her eyes.

"Men," the red haired shock her head and turned back towards the road. "Shall we then?"

"After you milady," Draco inclined his head and gestured for the girl to go first.

"Well aren't you charming," Diana teased as she started down the road.

"I would like to believe I am," Draco said confidently.

"Quite the comedian, too." Draco pouted at hearing the words.

"Why are you always fighting with Weasley?" Diana asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I believe that's quite obvious. One, he's a Weasley, and our families have hated each other for centuries - don't ask me how it started, I don't remember myself. Two, he is a Gryffindor and I am a Slytherin, that's enough a reason to despise each other for life."

"Actually the second one is plain stupid," stated Diana. "You can't just judge a person because he got into a different house, I mean, imagine if one of your friends had ended up in Gryffindor, would you have abandoned him?"

"Yes," said Draco bluntly causing Diana to glare at him incredulously. "I'm a Slytherin," he started explaining, "self-preservation is one of my main interests, not friendship. In our house, we rarely, if never, have things that you call friends. Everybody struggles for himself in there, you don't befriend someone because you like him, you do it because of the benefits a collaboration with such a person would bring you, and everyone else who approaches you does it for the exact same reason. You might say, we're partners in crime, but not friends."

"That's just wrong!" Diana shock her head disapprovingly.

"Maybe, but that's how things work in Slytherin," Draco stared.

"So, judging by your logic, I'd have to think that you only approached me because I'm one of the girls-who-lived, is it not?" Diana asked with narrowed eyes.

"Hmm," Draco didn't answer immediately, he didn't know if he should tell her the truth, that he had first approached her because he liked her. Really, the girl was gorgeous, well mannered (though she had quite a temper), and quite powerful (that was clear). But his Slytherin side had kicked in the moment he had heard her name and thought of the opportunities a relationship with one of the infamous girls-who-lived could bring, and the downfalls.

Diana suddenly grabbed a hold of Draco's hand and squeeze hard enough to almost crush the bone.

"What happened?" Draco turned to look at the girl quizzically.

Diana was standing stiffly besides him, her eyes wide and unblinking starting at something in the distance. Draco followed the girls gaze, and his eyes immediately landed on the fallen figure of a beautiful white horse which was lying motionless on the dirty ground bathed in a silvery-blue substance that seemed to be flooding freely out of its neck.

Diana gave a slight sob and looked away from the scene. She clapped her free hand over her mouth as silent tear began to roll down her face. Draco pulled the red head towards him and wrapped his arms securely around her waist. He took out his wand and shot green sparks in the air while looking grimly at the scene before him.

-----

"Who's there?" Hagrid called. "Show yerself — I'm armed!"

From between the trees emerged a magnificent creature that the girls had only heard of in legends. Heidi didn't actually know why she was so stunned to see one considering everything she had witnessed in the past week, but still…a centaur; a fascinating combination of human and animal. It was quite the sight to behold.

The centaur in front of them had red hair and beard, his lower body was a gleaming chestnut color with a reddish tail.

"Oh, it's you, Ronan," said Hagrid in relief. "How are yeh?"

Hagrid strode forward and shock the centaur's hand then he introduced the two girls who could only nod in acknowledgement.

The centaur seemed to be interested about the school, still, Heidi couldn't quite shake the feeling that he didn't actually agree with their educational system. It might have been because of that superior glee in his eyes, or the dismissive way he treated the school, but Heidi found herself not liking this Ronan…guy (?) one bit.

He then started blabbering things like "Mars is bright" to every freaking question Hagrid asked. Heidi knew for a fact that that was considered a bad omen in most predictions and such crap (which she did not believe in one bit), but seriously, did he have to use the blasted sentence after every three words that came out of his mouth?

Then another centaur came, one named Bane. Oh, jolly how, how! This one too, kept saying "Mars is bright" after every word that came out of his mouth.

After a few more frustrated attempts at talking to the centaurs, Hagrid finally came to his senses and left the two star gazers. Hermione was still glaring back at them while Heidi was convinced they were a heard of lunatics.

"Are there many of them in here?" asked Hermione.

"Oh, a fair few," said Hagrid. "Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, centaurs… they know things… jus' don' let on much."

Heidi was inclined to believe that they were just pulling on Hagrid's leg - there was no way a pack of ding heads knew shit about anything that was going on. She was slowly loosing her interest in this useless trip, and there was that worrying feeling like something was watching them. She didn't know how exactly she knew, but she did.

"Hagrid! Look! Green sparks, the others found the unicorn!"

"Let's go!" Hagrid scurried of towards the flashes of light that had colored the sky mere seconds ago, Hermione was right behind him.

Heidi was about to follow the two when suddenly pain like she'd never felt before shot through her scar, making her drop to her knees. She hastily covered the scar with her hands and began rubbing it furiously but the pain only increased in volume. Heidi lowered her head to the ground and gritted her teeth in agony. A sudden shift among the leaves managed to catch her attention and she slowly turned on her back to look up at a hooded figure which was towering over her.

She could clearly make out his ruby-red eyes burning like two torched in a dark room, a thick trail of silver and blue substance was floating down from what must have been his mouth which dropped silently on her cheek. The hooded figure drew closer, a bony hand stretched out from within his robes and reached for her. The pain in her scar increased tenfold as the distance between the figure and herself diminished, Heidi was positive her head would burst open as she let out a whimper of pain.

A drop of the silvery-blue liquid fell on her chin this time and a few seconds later she felt something soft and damp brushing slightly over her lips before it quickly retreated. She heard a galloping sound somewhere nearby and a few seconds later, a massive body flew over her and attacked the cloaked figure that scurried away into the darkness, taking along with it the searing migraine that Heidi was subdued by.

She breathed in a sight of relief and spat out the liquid that was now covering her entire mouth. She froze when she realized just what exactly the silver substance was.

Unicorn's blood!

Her blood ran cold and she desperately tried to wipe her face with the help of her sleeves.

"Are you alright?" asked a voice from somewhere above. Heidi lifted her head up to look in the eyes of a young centaur with white-blond hair and a palomino body.

"I will be when I kill that son of a bitch," she said angrily and tried to spit out any amount of blood that might have gone pass her lips.

"You are one of the Potter girls," he said. "You had better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time — especially for you. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way."

Heidi struggled to get of the ground and nodded her head.

"My name is Firenze," he added, as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Heidi could climber onto his back.

Firenze set off in the direction that Hermione and Hagrid had disappeared mere minutes ago.

"You did not swallow any amount of the blood did you?" the centaur asked after a few seconds.

"Of course not!" said Heidi as she rubbed her lips furiously on a clean part of her sleeve. "That was the thing that's been killing the unicorns, right?"

"Unfortunately," Firenze answered.

"Well, it's not much of a thing, more rather a human," Heidi said sarcastically. "But who? Who would want to kill a unicorn?"

"Do you know what unicorn blood is used for?" The centaur asked as means of an answer.

"No, we've never used it in Potions," Heidi answered.

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," said Firenze. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

Heidi stiffened and began rubbing at her lips again more vigorously then before. "I don't think I swallowed anything," she said in an angst voice. "How can I be sure?"

"Believe me we would have known by now if you had drunk the blood. It would have been plain clear for all to see, so we can safely assume you didn't."

Heidi let out a sigh of relief and steadied her head on Firenze's back. "Thank god."

"But who'd be that desperate?" She wondered aloud. "If you're going to be cursed forever, death's better, isn't it?" Then the answer came to her as clear as the light of day. "Voldemort," she whispered and the color drained out of her face. "Voldemort is here at Hogwarts! He's in the castle grounds! He kissed me! That son of a bitch KISSED ME! I'LL KILL THAT BASTARD!!" she shrieked in Firenze's ear, who stammered slightly to the left and covered his ears with his hands.

"Please keep it down for now! It will not do to have your presence remarked by any other inhabitants of the forest," Firenze said sternly.

"Who cares who'll remark me, as long as I get to kill that bastard!" Heidi swung her legs to the side and got ready to jump of with the soul intention of hunting the bastard down and strangling him, but Firenze grabbed her by the middle and hurtled her in front of him.

"I am sorry," the centaur apologized. "But I can not let you do that!" He broke of into a sprit with Heidi securely held in his embrace.

"Put me down!" the girl protested and started trashing wildly around, but Firenze refused to loosen his grip; only when he came to a halt before Hagrid did he lower the girl down on the ground and released her.

Heidi was about to turn around and kick the centaur in the growing (if he had one), but she falter when she saw Hermione's distressed face. Her bushy haired friend ran up to her and swung her arms around her, burying her head in her shoulders.

"What's happened?" she asked concerned when she heard Hermione's sobs.

She looked around confused and her eyes immediately fell on the fallen figure of the unicorn. It was the most beautiful and at the same time heartbreaking sight she had ever seen. The animal looked very much like a hors if you didn't count the sharp horn on its head, the glow of pure light that seemed to envelop its entire body and of course the silver-blue blood that was splattered all over the place, giving the scene a gruesome touch. Oh, she could clearly understand the sobs that were coming from her friend right now, and Diana's weeping form who was holding on to Draco like a lifesaver, her head buried deeply in the blonds shoulder. Draco too, looked saddened by the scene before him.

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The journey back to Hagrid's hut was not a pleasant one. Diana's legs couldn't support her at all and seeing as Hagrid went to burry the unicorn, Draco had to carry the girl on his back (something that he didn't mind doing one bit). Hermione and Heidi were a step behind, both wearing grim expressions on their face.

It took about two hours of coaching and whispers of soothing words in her ear for Diana to finally get into a fit enough state to leave Hagrid's hut. Draco and Heidi supported her all the way up towards the castle, and then Hermione took over for the blond when they reached the inside. When they finally got to Gryffindor tower none of them felt like sleeping so they crashed into seats besides the fireplace, Heidi sat in the middle while the other two rested their heads on her shoulder. They stood like that for half an hour or so, up until Diana's bitter voice broke the silence.

"Who could be as cruel as to…" her voice cracked at the end and she desperately tried to suppress a sob.

"It was Voldemort," Heidi stated unemotionally.

"How do you know?" asked Hermione.

"I saw him." Heidi told her sister and Hermione about the encounter with the cloaked figure, and the chat she had with Firenze.

"So it really was You-Know-Who," said Hermione in a quivering voice. "My god, we could have been killed tonight!"

"Why would that bastard want to drink unicorn blood?!" Asked Diana annoyed. "Why can't he just go drop dead somewhere, for the matter! I don't think anyone would mind!"

"He needs a body," said Heidi suddenly. "And unicorn blood can provide it to him. At least for now, until he gets his hands on something better!"

"You don't mean…" asked Hermione worried.

"The stone," exclaimed Diana in shock. "Voldemort's after the stone!"

"Yes, I think he ordered Snape to get it," Heidi concluded.

"I can't believe it," Hermione shuck her head in a vain attempt at clearing the shock that was threatening to overcome her. "You-know-who, is trying to get his powers back?! We have to tell Dumbledore!"

"Hell no!" Diana said. "I'm going to kill him first! Then we can tell Dumbledore!"

The conversation turned into a full out argument between the girls, on one side was Diana and Heidi who wanted nothing more then to chop Voldemorts' head off or smash it with a hammer, while on the other side was Hermione who was desperately trying to convince her two friends that going to Dumbledore was the best solution. The argument lasted well into the hours of morning and when the girls got to bed they still hadn't come to an agreement on what they were about to do, but they had all decided to drop the subject, if only for a few hours worth of a much needed sleep.