A/N: I'd like to thank everyone who takes the time to review. It's a good feeling knowing someone is enjoying the ideas in your head and looking forward to reading more. Also you guys keep me up in the early morning after work writing up the new chapters before I forget what my characters were doing during slow working hours. I honestly have no control over them anymore. So you guys are utterly awesome.

Hermione couldn't let Bella die. She was willing to sacrifice herself but even she didn't want to just give up and die needlessly. She managed to point to old gnarled wand at the figure above her. She didn't even have to think of a spell before the wand shot one out at the shadow.

The huge mass was launched off her, howling curse words as it was slammed into a distant tree. She didn't waste any time looking for her own wand as she climbed unsteadily to her feet. "Accio." It flew straight into her waiting hand and she took off away from the creature.

She didn't care if she were headed further into the forest all she knew was she had to get away from the black being so bent on killing her. She didn't know what she had done to piss it off but it had made its intentions very clear. It wanted to rip out her heart.

Her arm and lungs burned as she ran, blood was flowing freely from the crude letters but she couldn't stop, not until she found safety somewhere. She heard hoofs off in the distance and she ran toward the sound hoping it would be the centaurs that resided in the forest. Even if they loathed wizards she knew from Firenze they wouldn't attack a foul. She hoped she could still be considered one since she was technically of age.

Just when she thought her legs could no longer carry her she burst through the dense trees into a clearing. But she didn't see Centaurs. In the dark the silvery light of dozens of unicorns nearly blinded her. She half expected them to take off at her sudden intrusion but they stared at her in a calm silence as she tried to catch her breath and get her bearings. She tried to be perfectly still despite her fear, she'd never heard of so many of the beings seen in one place before and she'd hate if that vile monster followed her into their sanctuary.

She watched as the largest male made its way toward her. She collapsed to her knees, no longer able to stand and sucked in deep breaths as she watched the majestic animal slowly steal toward her. He was huge up close and his hind quarters was riddled with scars, as he got closer she realized his horn had been split precisely down the middle. It broke her heart to see such innocence maliciously marked.

But there was something fierce about him. Something decisive in the way he carried himself. She didn't know why but she didn't believe for one second this was just any unicorn in the mass that stood before her. They looked to him for protection, it was evident in the way the other animals had parted to let him through, how they seemed to look to him for guidance. If ever there was a leader of the unicorns he would have been it.

His approach suddenly made sense to Hermione. Leaders make all the hard decisions, they sacrifice so much for their people, he had sacrificed his very innocent nature for every hard decision he'd made and he was about to make another one about her. If she were considered a danger to his heard she had no doubt he'd kill her where she sat. She'd better make sure she proved she wasn't a threat.

~H~ ~H~ ~H~

High above the clearing, sitting peacefully on a sturdy limb swinging her legs as if she didn't have a care in the world, a little girl with black curls and silvery blue eyes watched the unicorn approach the kneeling figure of a girl. She held her breath in anticipation as the Guardian tipped its head down and sniffed her hair. Much to her credit the older girl didn't flinch. The whimsical girl knew what he smelled, the girls fear was ripe in the air, 'silver eyes' could smell it herself after all.

But since entering the glad the scent had subtly changed. No longer was the exhausted girl just afraid for herself, 'silver' didn't have to read minds to know the student now also feared for the safety of the creatures as well.

The girl was worried she'd let her enemy straight toward the unsuspecting beasts. Little did she know one couldn't just enter the glade at will, you had to be pure of heart and strong with courage. The creature would not get in; it was everything the girl was not after all. Selfish, vile, cruel and uncaring for anything but its own desires, no it could not even find the beautiful oasis in the woods.

After all, no one walks into the Glade of Virtue without first passing a trial. Not since the betrayal of the father.

Her silvery blue eyes turned black as the guardian moved away from the girl on the ground. Hermione Granger had passed the guardian's inspection. The little girl clapped her hands in silent glee. The end was getting so close. She looked off in the direction where the entity was throwing its tantrum at being cheated of its prize.

Soon they would meet again in the battle for the two souls. And this time she had no intention of losing.