Once they made it back to Hermione and Harry, Hagrid split them up into groups once more. Only this time, Samantha would be going with Harry, Draco, and Fang.
The group walked in silence as they grew deeper and deeper into the forest. Samantha was concerned that the puddles of shimmering blood seemed to be getting bigger the farther they went.
"Look -" Harry held his arm to stop us from walking forward.
Samantha took a shuddering breath as her eyes fell on the unicorn. It was dead. Tears filled her eyes at the sad, beautiful creature.
Harry took a step forward but and slithering sound made all of them freeze. It felt like ice entered into her veins. In the clearing, a hooded figure crawled out of the shadows. The figure approached the unicorn, lowered its face to the unicorn's wound, and started to drink the blood.
"AAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Malfoy screeched, turning and running away, Fang followed close behind the boy. As he passed Samantha, he grabbed her robes and dragged her after him.
"Malfoy, let go! We have to go back to Harry!" Samantha screamed at the boy.
But the blonde ignored her while his grip on her tightened.
Once Malfoy was good with the distance between them and Harry, he slowed to a stop. Samantha glared at him before sending red sparks into the air. "What were you thinking? We left Harry back there! He could be killed!"
"We could've been killed!" Malfoy countered.
Samantha rolled her eyes before sending another spark. "If he dies, I'll never forgive myself."
They waited, Fang a whimpering mess, for a good ten minutes before Hagrid came crashing through the forest.
"Where's Harry?" he asked, looking at Samantha.
She explained the situation and the half-giant ran where they had come. Hermione followed after him despite him telling them to stay.
"You think he'll be alright?" Neville asked, holding Samantha's hand.
"I have no idea," she whispered, feeling sick to her stomach.
By the time everything had settled down, Samantha was tempted to just lay down on the forest floor and sleep, scary cloaked figures be damned.
Hagrid must have seen how tired Samantha was because he told the group to head up to the castle without him, saying, "You've gotten yer fair share o' detention."
They silently headed up to the Gryffindor common room, save for Malfoy. As they entered the common room, Samantha saw a sleeping Ron but couldn't bring herself to care. She and Neville parted ways with the Golden Trio and each other.
Samantha tore her clothes off, put her pajamas on as fast as possible, and jumped into bed. Within seconds she was asleep.
"How was detention?" George asked, sitting next to her in the common room the next morning.
Samantha groaned and blinked tiredly. At about four in the morning, she had woken from the scariest nightmare she had ever had. She decided she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, so she ended up heading down to the common room and read a book.
Of course, once she started thinking about detention, she had gotten about a million questions running through her mind. Who was the cloaked figure? Why had Malfoy dragged her away? Why had she been worried about the Slytherin when he disappeared? And so many more she couldn't process.
"Terrible," was her simple answer as she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the sofa. "Just terrible."
"That bad, huh? Was it with Filch?" Fred asked, grabbing her potions book and flipping through it.
Samantha grabbed it from him, looked at the page she was supposed to be studying and sighed. She rubbed her eyes, trying to get rid of the soreness in them. "No, actually. It was with Hagrid. We went into the Forbidden Forest. We were looking for a wounded unicorn."
Bile rose to her throat as the image of the dead unicorn came to mind.
"Did you find it?"
Samantha swallowed roughly, nodding. "Yes."
Fred sent her a concerned look. "Was it, uh, dead?"
Samantha quickly stood up. "Can we not talk about this? I should go get ready." She walked up to her dorm as fast as she could without running.
Once she got into the washroom, she knelt down next to the toilet and emptied her stomach.
She heard someone come in and gasp. "Oh, Samantha," Hermione said. The girl grabbed Samantha's hair and pulled it away.
Samantha started to cry because no child should have ever witnessed something like that. No one should ever have to watch someone drink the blood of a pure creature. Once she finished, she sat back on her heels and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "I'm sorry," she rasped.
Hermione knelt down next to Samantha. "Don't apologize. Last night was very worrisome."
Samantha laughed dryly. "More like a nightmare. Do either you or Harry know what the creature was?"
Hermione looked away while she bit her lip.
"Hermione?"
"We think we know who it was," the girl whispered.
Samantha gulped. "Who? What do you mean by who? It was a monster, it wasn't a who, it was a thing."
Hermione cringed. "You have to swear you won't tell anyone." After a nod from Samantha, Hermione sighed. "It was You-Know-Who."
"Voldemort?" It escaped before she could stop it.
Hermione gasped like Samantha had said the foulest word ever.
Samantha didn't understand. Wasn't he gone? Hadn't Harry killed him when he was just a baby? She wanted to laugh at the obviousness of the situation. Of course, Voldemort was still alive. How could a baby kill the most powerful Dark Wizard of all time? Of bloody course.
And now, he was just waiting for the right time to rise to power again.
Hermione stood up. "I have to go to the library with Harry and Ron. You're alright?"
Samantha nodded, standing as well. "Yes, I'm fine. Have fun."
"Thank you," Hermione said with a smile. The girl left, closing the door behind her.
"Oh dear," Samantha muttered, undressing and climbing into the bath. She had a lot of thinking to do.
When she had finished getting ready, despite all the things that were going through her mind, she felt refreshed. She headed down to breakfast with the purpose of apologizing to Fred and George.
Unfortunately, Malfoy had other plans.
"Jones!" he called.
Samantha stopped in her tracks. She looked at the doors to the Great Hall in irritation. She had been so close. "What, Malfoy?" she asked, turning on her heel.
The Slytherin smirked while Crabbe and Goyle guffawed behind him. "How are you feeling?"
"And why would you care?" she asked with a roll of her eyes.
Malfoy's silver eyes flashed with amusement. "I don't necessarily care, you just seemed quite scared last night."
"Like you were any better," Samantha scoffed. Without giving him a chance to say anything else, Samantha went into the Great Hall.
Making her way to the Gryffindor table, she glowered. Malfoy didn't have any right to say anything about how she was scared. He had screamed like a girl.
A/N: Hey, guys! Sorry I didn't update on Monday but guess what! I finished this book! WHOOP WHOOP! I am done writing it and honestly, I'm kind of really tempted to just publish it all today. I think I will. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
