Chapter Fourteen; The Little Unicorn
The next morning Lilly, Chase, and Richie woke up and went down to the great hall together for breakfast. Neither one of them had gotten much sleep. Now Hufflepuff was in the lead for the house cup. Although they were happy for their friend Miley, Chase complained about the fact that he hated the fact that his sister was chosen for the youngest head girl ever, (even though Lilly felt that they deserved their punishment) and meanwhile inside Godric's Hollow, Harry and Ginny had been contemplating at how much their three remaining children candy that they collected the night before.
Brian had had his Halloween party at school the following day, and believe it or not, his first karate lesson. His teacher (sensei) thought that he already showed a lot of promise. Then, after their children went off to school, Tilly showed up with an envelope clamped under her beak. Harry went over to the window to let her in while Ginny picked Black Magic up off of the dining room table and held him inside her arms cuddling him to her chest.
"Who's it from Harry?" she asked him while he tore into the envelope.
"Hermione." He responded as Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Uh oh, what have Lilly and Lucy done now?" she wondered.
"While according to her letter, Hermione says that they snuck out in the middle of the night to investigate a dragon in the Forbidden Forest that was really Chase in actuality." He explained as Ginny simply shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"Those two girls just never learn." She said.
….. …..
That night at Hogwarts, Lilly, Lucy, Brianna, DJ, Miley, Myrtle, Chase, and Richie were led by Hermione down to Hagrid's hut. "Well Chase it looks like you got your wish after all." She began. "Since you were so intent on protecting the unicorns, that's exactly what you get to do with Hagrid tonight." She explained as Hagrid stepped out of his hut and went to go meet them.
Lilly and Miley would have been excited about getting to see real live unicorns, if it wasn't for the werewolf that tried attacking them last night and ended up attacking DJ instead. "Hullo," Hagrid greeted warmly with a grin on his face but Hermione simply scowled and shook her head reminding him that they were supposed to being punished.
"Right," he began before his grin vanished and he cleared his throat inside his fist. "so this is what is going to happen. I'm going to split you up into groups. Lilly, Lucy, and Brianna will be in one group, DJ, Miley, and Myrtle will be in another, and Chase and Richie will be in the final one. Be on the lookout for a newborn unicorn foal who is still golden in color. If you find him, you find his mother. Once you find them, or if you get in any trouble while you're out there I want you to send up red sparks with your wands.
Now boys I want you to be extra cautious when you're around the mare. Adult unicorns aren't very trusting of boys as it is, and they're especially more dangerous when it comes to their babies bein' around." He explained.
"So what are you going to do when we found the unicorns?" Lilly asked him.
"Well, I think that the beautiful animals will be safer if we paddock them and use keep away werewolf spray for the time being until the foal grows up." Hagrid explained.
"Can we name them?" Lucy asked him eagerly.
"We'll see, right now you lot have to serve your detention, so there will be no more talking except about the job that we've got to do. Split up into your groups and go into the forest. I'll be going with Chase and Richie to make things more even." He explained as they divided into their groups and then stepped inside the forest together before splitting up in separate directions.
"This is going to be impossible, how will we ever find a couple of unicorns by ourselves?" Lucy questioned.
"You heard Hagrid, unicorns are more attracted to girls than boys. So when it comes right down to it, since we're the only all girl group, we have the best shot at finding them." Lilly told her. "Especially since they probably know already that Miley and I are unicorn people. Animals can sort of sense those things." She added as they continued walking further into the woods when all of a sudden Miley grabbed ahold of Lilly's sleeve and tugged on it.
"Miley look!" she cried as Lilly let out a rather large yawn trying to forget about the fact how tired she actually was and looked down to where the other girl had been pointing. Sure enough, there were hoof prints inside the dirt. That's when all of a sudden they heard a petrified whinnying noise.
"The foul!" all three of them cried in unison while exchanging looks with each other and rushing behind one of the trees. Sure enough there was a tiny baby unicorn stuck in a deep mud puddle.
"Aww! Poor thing!" Miley cried while the baby continued looking at them and snorting as he tried to pull himself out. "How are we going to get him out of there?" she wondered.
"Inferno!" Lilly cried out with a wave of her wand and then pointing it at the mud puddle and then giving one final gigantic swish. The puddle from underneath the foal's feet instantly evaporated and he was suddenly able to break free. He gave out another snort and started walking over to them. That's when all of a sudden there came a greater snort and a large fully-grown sized pure white unicorn emerged from out of the shadows.
All three girls were frozen with shock and astonishment at her sparkling mane, tail, and gigantic horn on the top of her head as she started making her way towards them. "She isn't going to hurt us is she?" Miley wondered nervously. The mare halted in front of them and with a soft and gentle snort she lowered her head in front of them. Miley gasped as she reached out her hand and stroked her cheek.
"You're welcome." She whispered while Lilly and Lucy both shot up red sparks with their wands.
A few moments later the other showed up. The mother unicorn pulled back her ears and snorted angrily as she backed up several feet and reared up into the air with a ferocious whinny.
"Boys step back!" Hagrid instructed while he tried to calm the horrified mare. "It's alright, easy girl. We're not going to harm you or your baby. We just want to help ya." Hagrid reassured her soothingly as he slowly stepped towards them while the boys stepped back.
"Hagrid's right Winnie, everything's going to be fine." Miley whispered softly.
"Who's Winnie?" Chase asked her.
"Her." Miley began as she pointed at the magical horse. "That's what I decided to call her." She explained.
"Oh and I suppose the foal's name is Poohbear." Brianna said with a roll of her eyes.
"No,.. just Bear." Miley told her.
"What kind of name is that for a unicorn?" Chase wondered while they all stepped aside and watched as Hagrid lassoed a rope around Winnie's neck and started leading her away.
"Boys follow me, girls why don't you try and lure the little one back to the hut?" he suggested.
"Alright." Miley agreed with a nod. "Come on Bear follow your mummy." She told him as Bear nodded his head up and down in response and then started following his new friends out of the woods. Once they had made it into the clearing the foal reared up and gave an excited and energetic whinny as he caught a glimpse of his mother and galloped over to her. The two magical horses nudged each other with their heads before Bear started nursing from his mother while she gave soft and gentle whinnies while he drunk his milk.
"Alright guys that's pretty much it." Hagrid began. "Thank you for your help and I reckon that you ought to go to bed now." He told them.
"Will the unicorns be alright?" Myrtle asked him.
"They should be. I'm just waiting until Bear is finished nursing and then I'll put him and his mother in the paddock. Poor things, I hate to see any unicorn being held captive, but it's for their own good and they'll have plenty to eat and room to run." He explained as Myrtle started walking back up to the castle with the others before stopping to turn around and look at Miley.
"Come on Miley, they'll be alright. Let's go." She told her as she heaved out a heavy and reluctant sigh before racing away to catch up with the others and shouting her final farewell to Hagrid and her new animal friends.