The Forbidden Forest

"Look at that!"

"No it has to be a mistake!"

"I heard Harry Potter and his friends were caught out of bed last night and they're the reason!"

Ella walked through a swarm of angry Gryffindors and found her friends in a cluster. They were all fuming and Ella was confused as to why. Something big must have happened to cause so many nice people to turn into something verging on an angry mob.

She got up to her friends and asked, "What's happened? Why is everyone so mad?" All of them turned to her looking still a bit mad, but also a little sad.

Angelina spoke first, "Apparently Harry Potter and a few of his friends were caught out of bed last night and now there's about a hundred and fifty points lost from our House points!"

Lee added, "No one has ever lost that many points in one go. Not even Fred, George, and I. I can't believe that we had the lead and now it gone." Ella frowned at the thought, but something was nagging in the back of her mind. The dragon.

"What if they had a good reason for being out of bed?" She asked them looking around between each of the forlorn faces.

Fred snorted, "What could have been all that important. Anyways, if it was that important, why wouldn't they tell the teacher?"

Opening her mouth to reply, she found she had nothing that she could actually tell them that they could believe. If she told them the truth, they'd believe it to be outrageous. She stayed quiet and they took that as a sign that she had given up on trying to justify Harry's reason. Contrary to their belief she knew their reason and if no one else was going to be civil to those first years, she would be.

By Thursday of that week her friends put aside their moaning just to try and make Ella have a happy birthday. She was finally a teenager after all, thirteen years old. Her parents gave her nothing which was expected of them, but the rest of her friends managed some sweets from the wizarding village as well as other little things that they thought she'd like. Her favorite gift was from Fred and George who decided what to get her by themselves this time instead of asking an older brother. They bought her a charm for the bracelet they had gotten for her last birthday, the one she never took off. For their birthday she had given them some Muggle money and prank supplies with the help of Bill Weasley. She had sent him a letter and some money asking him if he could buy something for Fred and George. Bill sent the money back with supplies telling her to keep the money for herself and wish them a happy birthday for him. Neither twin could figure out how she had managed to get them such cool stuff for their birthday, but were thankful nonetheless. Everything was so perfect for her birthday that she didn't want the day to end.

The next week after the points were lost, everyone was positively cruel to Harry, Hermione, and Neville who only happened to stumble upon this mess by accident. Neville didn't know there was a real dragon and certainly didn't deserve to be given any silent treatment. None of them deserved any sort of silent treatment, but if the other students learned that then Hagrid would be in a lot of trouble. All three kids just kept their heads down and tried not to be noticed by anyone.

Meanwhile, Ella dreams were coming at a frantic, all-time high. She wasn't sure what to make of most of them, but she knew none of the things were good. Couldn't she dream of rainbows and butterflies for once? Really, the dreams didn't need to be made of such horrible things like what she was seeing. Ella had a sinking feeling in her stomach that a couple of the things she saw weren't even from this year, but that only made her feel even more sick. Each night had a little bit or piece of the Animagus training, but it rarely took up more than five seconds of the dream now. Every dream was different and took Ella by surprise.

The scene was set in a corridor of the school. There were no sounds yet Ella felt as though the walls were moving towards something. She followed the invisible movement until she came to the end of the corridor. She was very familiar with this place; it was near the Great Hall. A red substance was smeared on the walls in the form of words. Ella was nervous about getting closer, she felt that if she got any nearer to the message something would pop out of nowhere and strike her. Every one of her hairs stood on end as she walked closer to the wall and every part of her commonsense screamed for her to run away, but she was determined to see the message so she could relay it to Dumbledore.

Her dream changed.

Now, she was listening to a soft melody while the three-headed dog slept. She snuck past it without telling her feet where to go. She didn't know where her feet should go but they did. A trap door dropped straight into a black pit of who knows what, but Ella's feet didn't seem to fear anything that could possibly be in that hole. She fell into a soft pit and it didn't seem too bad, until she realized this was a pit of Devil's Snare from another dream. She relaxed as much as she could and made her escape thinking that'd be the end of it. She was wrong. Now she found a room of keys and a door on the other end to get through. Without telling her body to, it decided that she would grab a key and put it in the lock. That's when Ella entered the chess room. At first, she thought she'd have to play a game of chess like she'd seen Ron do, but she didn't, it was like she was only getting a tour of the place and wasn't actually there. Her legs took her straight into the next room. There was a riddle on a sheet of paper and several bottles; she knew her body would decide for her. A fire raged on either side of her and she took a potion that made her stomach feel like it was turning to ice. At last she walked through the fire. Ella knew this was where they were keeping whatever was so precious and had originally been in the vault.

Before she could see anything more the dream reformed again.

Looking around Ella realized she must have been in the forbidden forest. She'd never been there before and wouldn't have minded taking a look around for curiosity's sake, but dreams never let her choose where she wanted to go. She followed Harry and Malfoy a little ways until they came upon a dead unicorn. Ella wanted to cry at the sight of such a beautiful animal being dead. The silvery creature was so magnificent Ella couldn't imagine what horrible thing would want to kill it. Then she watched the bush near them begin to quiver. From the bush came a figure shrouded in darkness. It went up to the dead animal and began to drink its blood. She was going to throw up at the disgusting scene in front of her. She heard Malfoy give a frightened scream beside her and Harry, then bolt away with Fang at his heels. She found herself to be frozen alongside Harry. The man looked up at the two of them and began to swiftly come at them. Ella could see the blood dribbling down his chin.

Screaming Ella bolted up in bed. She was shaking vigorously from head to toe. She just couldn't stop herself; what she saw was terrifying. The image wouldn't leave her either. Every time her eyes closed the face with unicorn blood dripping down its chin would be there like it was burned into her memory. The event hadn't even happened yet, but she was already on edge. Normal people don't drink unicorn's blood; the thought of doing so seemed just dark.

Katie was by her side in an instant, "Ella, Ella what's happened? What's wrong?" She couldn't tell her what she saw; Katie understood that too and didn't try to make her tell. If she had it only would've caused more pain. So the two of them sat on Ella's bed and Katie hugged Ella until she stopped shaking so terribly. It took nearly thirty minutes for her to calm down; by then they both had to get ready and go to class.

At the end of the day Ella walked into the Common Room and was surprised to see Harry sitting by himself in a seat next to the window. Of course, everyone had been ignoring him lately, but that didn't mean that Ron and Hermione wouldn't be with him. She looked around but didn't see them at all. The only thing she saw was the other students casting glares in Harry's direction every so often.

"Harry!" She said deciding to sit with him. Some of the people passing by gave her disbelieving looks for 'talking to the traitor' but she didn't pay them any mind.

He was startled to say the least he turned around and asked hesitantly, "You're not going to be one of the people who are going to just blame me for losing all those points are you?"

She laughed, "No, no I actually know why you were out that late. You were sending Norbert to Romania."

Harry's eyes grew wide, "You know that? You're not going to tell any of the teachers are you? Hagrid could get into big trouble if any of them find out."

"I won't tell them, especially since he's gone now. Good thing too, he was getting rather large to stay in that hut, don't you think?" Harry only could look at her in amazement.

"You know, I remember Ron telling me something about you dreaming about the future. Can you really do that?" Harry asked her sounding extremely curious.

"Yes, but I'm not supposed to tell anyone what I see. It could change the outcome of future events and Dumbledore wanted me to avoid that," she explained and Harry nodded.

"That explains how you know so much, at least you don't hate us," Harry stated sadly.

Ella smiled and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Things get better Harry, I assure you. You've got great friends and a bright future. I know that your reason for losing those points was a good one; soon enough everyone else will realize their just points and you'll go back to being the famous Harry Potter."

Harry laughed, "Because I want to be that so badly."

She stood up and patted his shoulder one last time, "I've got to go now, but just keep your chin up and be safe tonight." Harry gave her a look like he wanted her to elaborate more on what she meant about being safe, but Ella didn't feel like she needed to.

Later that night Ella couldn't sleep so she snuck down to the Common Room to study. It was nearly midnight so she knew most of the students would be asleep. Hermione, Harry, and Neville would be the exception in a little bit when they returned from their detention. Ella knew she should be sleeping since there would be classes the next day, but after that dream with the unicorn she didn't want to deal with sleep. She didn't entirely believe she'd dream about that man again since it was most likely happening right now, but she didn't want to risk it.

The portrait hole swung open and Dumbledore walked through. Upon noticing her he smiled and made his way to where she was seated. He took a seat across from her and she could see the invisibility cloak in his hand.

"Up a bit late aren't we Ella?" He asked not sounding angry, more amused.

"Couldn't sleep professor," she told him honestly. He just nodded at her and looked at her History of Magic book.

"I see you're taking extreme measure to put yourself to sleep," he joked to her.

Ella laughed, "I suppose I am."

Dumbledore dropped the smile and informed her, "I'd like to have a meeting with you after the tests are over about your curse. Would you be alright with that?"

Nodding she responded, "Of course Professor, that'd be fine."

He smiled at her once more, "Good, now that we have that settled, you should hurry along to bed now. One your age needs all the sleep they can get." Ella's shoulders slumped a bit but she did as she was told and climbed the stairs into the girl's dormitory. Luckily, she didn't dream of the man, but the images were still horrible. She awoke the next morning feeling jumpy and weak. She wondered if she'd ever feel strong again while these dreams went on. It also wouldn't be until much later that she would wonder why Dumbledore had had Harry's cloak with him and been in the Common Room at all.

A/N: So how was that? I hope it was good! I also said I'd be publishing quicker, so I'm trying to keep that promise! Would you mind reviewing? I'd really like some feedback on how I'm doing and what you'd like more of! :) Thanks for reading!