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The minutes dragged by. Their ears seemed sharper than usual. Hope's seemed to be picking up every sigh of the wind, every cracking twig. What was going on? Where were the others? Cassie looked ready to puke.

"I don't care about Pansy, but what about Hermes and Nadine?" Hope whispered.

"I don't know." Cassie whispered back. Hope thought that was the first time those words had left the rich girl's mouth.

At last, a great crunching noise announced Hagrid's return. Hermes, Nadine, Pansy and Fang were with him. Hagrid was fuming. Pansy, it seemed, had sneaked up behind Nadine and screamed at her as a joke. Nadine had panicked and sent up the sparks.

"We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now, with the racket you were makin'. Right, we're changin' groups. Nadine, you stay with me an' Cassie. Hope, you go with Hermes, Fang an' this idiot." He announced. Then he added in a whisper to Hope: "Sorry, but she'll have a harder time frightenin' you an' we've gotta get this done."

So Hope set off into the heart of the forest with Hermes, Pansy and Fang. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick.

Hope thought the blood seemed to be getting thicker. There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain close by. Hope could see a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak.

"Look." She murmured, holding out her arm to stop Hermes. Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. Hermes and Hope inched closer.

It was the unicorn all right and it was dead. Hope had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly white on the dark leaves. Hope wanted to cry at the sight.

Hope and Hermes had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made them both freeze where they stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered... Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. Hermes, Hope, Pansy and Fang all stood transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

Suddenly, Pansy let out a terrible scream and bolt. Fang whined and raced after her, like the bloody coward Hagrid had warned them he was. Hermes grabbed Hope's hand and they started backpedaling, still staring in shock at the sight before them. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Hope. Unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Hope. She and Hermes tried to run, but then a pain like she'd never felt before pierced Hope's head. It was as though her scar were on fire.

She fell over, vision blurring. She was vaguely aware of Hermes trying to drag her back up and she thought she was trying to tell him to run, but she wasn't sure if the words actually got past her lips. Through her daze, she heard hooves behind them, galloping, and something jumped clean over the two, charging at the figure.

Hope squeezed her eyes shut, crying out with pain. When the pain finally faded and she looked up, the figure had gone. A centaur was standing over her, not Ronan or Bane. This one looked younger; he had white-blond hair and a palomino body.

"Are you all right?" The centaur asked as Hermes got Hope to her feet.

"Yes... thank you... what was that?" Hope stammered. The centaur didn't answer. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Hope, his eyes lingering on the scar that stood out, livid, on Hope's forehead.

"You are the Potter girl." It wasn't a question. "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. My name is Firenze." He added as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Hope and Hermes could clamber onto his back.

There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Ronan and Bane came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty.

"Firenze!" Bane thundered. "What are you doing? You have a human on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?"

"Do you realize who this is? This is the Potter girl. The quicker she leaves this forest, the better."

"What have you been telling her?" Bane growled. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?" Ronan pawed the ground nervously.

"I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best." He said in his gloomy voice. Bane kicked his back legs in anger.

"For the best! What is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"

Firenze suddenly reared on to his hind legs in anger, so that Hope had to grab his shoulders to stay on. Hermes linked his arms around her waist in a tight grip so he didn't slip off either.

"Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze bellowed at Bane. "Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."

And Firenze whisked around; with Hope and Hermes clutching on as best they could, they plunged off into the trees, leaving Ronan and Bane behind them. Hope didn't have a clue what was going on.

"Why's Bane so angry?" She asked over the whistling of the air around them. "What was that thing you saved me from, anyway?"

Firenze slowed to a walk, warned the two of them to keep their head bowed in case of low-hanging branches, but did not answer Hope's question. They made their way through the trees in silence for so long that Hope thought Firenze didn't want to talk to her anymore. They were passing through a particularly dense patch of trees, however, when Firenze suddenly stopped.

"Hope Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"

"No." Hope admitted, startled by the odd question.

"We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions." Hermes added.

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn. 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." Hope stared at the back of Firenze's head, which was dappled silver in the moonlight.

"But who'd be that desperate? If you're going to be cursed forever, deaths better, isn't it?"

"It is." Firenze agreed. "Unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else. Something that will bring you back to full strength and power. Something that will mean you can never die. Ms. Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?

"The Sorcerer's Stone... The Elixir of Life! But I don't understand who-."

"Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"

It was as though an iron fist had clenched suddenly around Hope's heart. Over the rustling of the trees, she seemed to hear once more what Hagrid had told her on the night they had met:

"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die."

She had just seen Voldemort. She knew it, just like she'd known it was her parents in that mirror or that Snape was trying to steal the stone. She didn't need to be told or spoon-fed the answer. Voldemort had been within in feet of her that night. She shuddered involuntarily.

"Hope, Hermes, are you all right?" Cassie was running toward them down the path, Hagrid puffing along behind her.

"I'm fine." Hope whispered without really hearing herself. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid, it's in that clearing back there."

"This is where I leave you." Firenze murmured as Hagrid hurried off to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now." Hope and Hermes slid off his back. "Good luck, Hope Potter. The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times." He turned and cantered back into the depths of the forest, leaving Hope shivering behind him.

Hope didn't think she would ever sleep again. The curtains were drawn around her bed and Crookshanks was curled up next to her, but none of the former comfort she'd gotten from the arrangement was there. She rolled over again and again, trying to block the image of the cloaked figure out of her mind. Her scar still hurt.

She put her hand under her pillow to support her head more and jumped when she felt something slippery under her fingers. Moving her pillow, she saw her invisibility cloak folded neatly underneath them. There was a note pinned to it:

Just in case.

When the quartet gathered on an abandoned staircase the next morning to talk, neither Cassie nor Regina could believe what had happened. Hope was still in shock as she told the other two what had happened. Her hands were still shaking and she was exhausted; she hadn't been able to sleep the night before and, despite Cassie's pestering, hadn't told anyone else what had happened yet.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..."

"Stop saying the name!" Regina cried in a terrified whisper, as if she thought Voldemort could hear them. Hope wasn't listening.

"Firenze saved us, but maybe he shouldn't have done so... The other centaurs were furious... One was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show that Voldemort's coming back..."

"Stop saying the name!" Regina repeated, curling in on herself on the steps.

Everyone was huddled together, all looking very pale, tired and too young to be dealing with any of this. Hope knew she looked the same, or perhaps worse. She was the youngest of the group, as they liked to remind her, and definitely the smallest. She was also the most scared in that moment. She couldn't stop talking.

"So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone. Then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off... Well, I suppose the centaurs be happy."

Hermes looked very frightened, but he had a word of comfort:

"Hope, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."

They sat there in silence once more. Hope had only one thing on her mind: when had everything gone so wrong?