Last time:
It was two days later and the Professors still had no idea who had been behind the pranks, although Potter hadn't stopped watching their every move, he seemed even more suspicious than before.
"So did you notice how weasel wasn't in class today?" Draco asked as he sat down in the common room next to Harry, receiving a nod he continued.
"I had to take his books and homework assignments to him in the hospital wing, he got bitten by something his foot is like green" he laughed.
"ew" Harry muttered scrunching up his nose.
"Anyway in his books was a note, from his brother, apparently they are meeting him at midnight in a week to fob off a baby dragon for the oaf Hagrid.
"No!" Harry exclaimed in shock.
"I have an idea" Draco said smugly.
"It's a bad idea, you will get caught" Hermione interjected.
"We won't get caught" Harry and Draco said together happily, rolling her eyes Hermione went back to reading ignoring the foolish plan they were constructing now.
…..
"I can't believe we got caught" Draco grumbled as Harry sulked, it was eleven o'clock the next night, and their amazing plan had fallen flat, just like Hermione had said it would, something she had taken great pleasure in gloating over.
"Next time you have a plan…. Don't come to me" Harry muttered grumpily as they made their way to the entrance hall for their detention. Although they had to admit to themselves that going after Weasley and Potter to lead a Professor to them while they still had the dragon was kind of stupid and rash. Granted the first part had worked perfectly, they had managed to get both Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Snape to catch them as they were leaving the Astronomy tower crowing loudly about how they had pulled it off. But the problem was Professor Mcgonagall decided they also deserved to be in detention for being out of hours no matter how 'honorable' their intentions were. So now, here they were stuck in a late night detention with Weasley and Potter, and Longbottom apparently as they turned the corner at caught sight of the three Gryffindors with Filch.
"What's Longbottom doing here?" Harry asked shocked as he took in the chubby boys terrified and pale face.
"I got caught trying to stop them" the boy said miserably.
"Shut it Longbottom, you shouldn't of tried to interfere" Weasley snapped making his housemate flinch, Harry narrowed his eyes slightly so much for house loyalty.
"Follow me" Filch said, his voice low and creepy, lighting a lamp he lead them outside still talking, not that Harry or Draco were actually listening.
"I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at them.
"It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out, hang you by your thumbs from the ceiling for a few days, God I miss the screaming." He sighed wistfully. Harry and Draco shared looks, the man was crazy.
They marched off across the dark grounds, no sounds heard except their footsteps and Neville who kept sniffing. Harry wondered what their punishment was going to be, it must be something really horrible, or Filch wouldn't be sounding so delighted.
Before they knew it they were heading into the forest with Hagrid, who had a massive crossbow on his back while chatting happily. Fang, the most cowardly dog Harry had ever met. Weasley and Potter, the boys who actually deserved to be out there doing this servant work. And Neville, who to be honest was the only truly innocent person in their detention party. Harry had to admit despite not having as much contact with the boy as the girls in their friendship group, he felt extremely guilty knowing that the boy had only snuck out to stop all of them getting caught with a Dragon out of hours. It was clear the boy was terrified but the true Gryffindor bravery was showing through as he pushed himself through the undergrowth of the Forbidden Forest. Before long they came across a disturbing sight.
"Look there," said Hagrid.
"see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. 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."
"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Asked Draco, losing all decorum as he was 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, Harry couldn't help but snort, he could think of many creatures that would hurt them even with the gameskeeper or dog with them.
"An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least." He said sadly.
"So me, Ron, Neville an' Malfoy go one way an' Riddle, Henry, an' Fang'll go the other."
"Wait! Why do I get stuck with him?" Henry cried while pointing at Harry.
"Oh yes, because you're the only one suffering with his choice" Harry snarked rolling his eyes.
"Quiet, Yeh 'ave ter rely on each other in ter!" Hagrid cried.
"Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now - that's it - an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh, so be careful, let's go." The forest was black and silent. A little further into the undergrowth they reached a fork in the earth path, and Ron, Draco, Neville and Hagrid took the left path while Harry, Henry, and Fang took the right. They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground, every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. 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. Harry 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. Harry could see a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak.
"Look" he murmured, holding out his arm to stop Henry, who pushed the arm away angrily before looking himself. Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer. It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and sad, it's long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves. Even his Father knew better than to hurt such a beautiful creature, especially one of pure innocence. It was a fully grown unicorn, Harry knew enough about them to know that; it was a shade of pure white that was so bright that it could make freshly fallen snow look grey in comparison, unicorn foals are born pure gold and remain so until they are about two years old at which time they start to change color to silver and steadily make their way to the white this one was. They also don't get their horns until around four years old, the one Harry was currently looking at was at the very least 7 years old, although no one knew for certain how long they lived for.
Various parts of the Unicorn; the horn and tail hair in particular can be used in potions. Unicorn hair in general can also be used for the cores of wands. The tail hair can also be used as binding in bandages due to its incredible strength. Harry thought as he rattled off the uses in his head quickly, he could hear Henry Potter breathing start to get sporadic indicating his panic. But as Harry's mind whizzed through everything he knew of unicorns, one thing stuck out in mind, none of the uses required the unicorn to be killed, even for the horn to be used it had to of fallen off or the unicorn die of natural causes. To slay a unicorn was a horrible crime, everyone knew that. He felt his magic crackling around them as he allowed the sadness too leave as he grieved for the creature before him.
He took a step towards it to try and see what had happened to it, when a slithering sound made him freeze where he 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. Harry, Henry, and Fang 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, Harry's eyes widened in horror, whoever this was they had just committed one of the most heinous acts of magic. Fang bolted, running as fast as his four legs could carry him. The hooded figure then raised its head and strangely enough looked right at Henry Potter, as if it had been waiting for him, the unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Henry, who apparently couldn't move for fear, as the figure got closer Henry finally moved, staggering backwards, and screaming loudly. Thinking quickly Harry sent up the sparks up into the sky praying the others would find them. The cloaked figured moved towards them, still staring at Henry Potter, red eyes gleamed angrily in the darkness. Only one person truly had red eyes like that in their world. But Harry could feel the magic oozing off the figure and it certainly wasn't the cold, alluring powerful magic of his father.
His mind was working quickly, clearly it wasn't his father, but red eyes, the drinking of the unicorn blood, the Philosopher's stone hidden in the castle. Harry gasped as he realized what was happening, he knew Dumbledore had wanted his father to try to get into the school for the stone and to test Henry Potter. And he knew that Dumbledore would of had a fall back villian in case his Father hadn't come for it, but never had Harry thought of the possibility of Dumbledore actually having a fake 'Voldemort' as a fall back. He couldn't believe it, the old meddling coot was actually crazy, to actually have someone ACT as his Father. But that begged the question… who was playing the role? Looking up he searched for clues as the robed figure made it's way to them. Henry was screaming as he scrambled back clutching his fake scar his brown eyes wide in fear. Before Harry couldn't act the thundering of feet on the forest ground, turning around he saw Hagrid running towards them with his crossbow out. The figure fled quickly to avoid damage from the angry gamekeeper. Hagrid helped Henry to his feet as his eyes searched around them quickly.
"What 'Appened?" Hagrid asked.
"He was going to attack me" Henry whimpered.
Harry rolled his eyes, if his suspicions were correct, which they usually were, the man posing as his Father would be on orders to do no actual damage to the precious 'boy-who-lived'.
"Yeh safe now" Hagrid reassured the distraught boy.
…..
Harry sat down in the common room recounting what happened to Draco, Hermione, Theo, Blaise, Daphne, Pansy, and Luna.
"So who is pretending to be your Father?" Blaise asked in awe.
"No idea" Harry muttered, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
"Father and Uncle Severus have both said to not trust Quirrell" Hermione pointed out smartly, her hands resting against her mouth, a habit that started when she was young and read something she didn't understand.
"That bumbling mess?" Theo asked incredulously.
"He can't even talk without stuttering" Pansy laughed.
"He is afraid of his own shadow" Daphne declared.
"Unless he is appearing as non threatening on purpose" Harry mused.
"Walking through Hogwarts without being seen" Hermione nodded.
"We need to get the stone Mione, after tonight Potter and Weasel won't wait much longer" Harry said firmly smiling when he got an agreement from his sister. He knew he could always count on her.
So sorry this a tad late, I just couldn't write it the way I wanted. I am still not happy with it but it is wwaaayyyy better than what it was, so hope you all still enjoyed, sorry for any mistakes :S The Darkness Decends is almost finished guys… wow only a few chapters to go before the Riddle's finish their first year.