Following the incident with the troll, Draco's demeanour changed entirely. He swiftly turned away from the more dubious influences of acquaintances like Dolohov, and within a week was commonly to be found in the presence of Harry and his friends. While for the most part Harry and the others were pleased with their new friend, there were some downsides. Firstly, while Draco refrained from saying anything directly to Hermione, he treated her with a level of disdain that infuriated the others and caused no end of arguments. Draco's arrogance was unabated by the light teasing, and somewhat more pointed remarks by his new friends. Harry also suffered uniquely from the disdain of his brother; Max who had long loathed the younger Malfoy, was less than pleased with Harry's new friendship. Despite these drawbacks, Harry's group of friends had swelled by one, and the group could be found haunting the library and lakeside almost every day.
Unknown to them, the group had become something of a fascination to the teachers, who couldn't quite believe that a group of friends drawing from three of the houses, were getting on so successfully. Their incredulity and quiet pride in the achievement had led to a lightening of the detentions Harry, Theo and Draco had found themselves lumbered with. Therefore when they were summoned late on Friday evening to venture into the forbidden forest alongside the gamekeeper, the three were rather surprised. Hagrid of course was hardly an intimidating figure once you got to know him, and although the three boys had never spent much time in his presence, none of them would describe the half giant as anything but gentle.
The evening was fading into night as Hagrid explained the task to the boys; a hunt to find a creature that was responsible for the killing of unicorns. When Hagrid finished talking Harry could only stare at the man, impotent with shock: They were first years, hardly qualified to go searching for a monster that had so few qualms about killing what was well known to be the purest animal in existence. Even werewolves would shy away from attacking unicorns when on a killing spree, and to systematically target them, was an act that would curse the soul irredeemably. To Harry's shock however, neither of his classmates seemed to have any reservations about the task that was being demanded of them.
As they headed off into the forest, wands in hands, lit up to illuminate the path ahead of them, Harry turned to Theo and Draco, who were trudging along beside him, just out of earshot of Hagrid. "Don't you think this task is a bit, well, odd. Unicorns are practically considered sacred, anything that's killing them is likely to be exceptionally dangerous and lacking in morals. Surely it would be more sensible for the professors to be looking into this, maybe even the Aurors given the potential risk to the school."
Theo and Draco both turned to give him contemplative looks. Draco was the first to reply. "I guess I hadn't really thought about it, I suppose it does seem a little strange."
"I mean if anyone else was telling us to look into this, I probably would have been more concerned but, this was sanctioned by Dumbledore surely. He's practically the most respected wizard in Britain, I hardly think he's in the business of endangering his own students." Harry didn't respond beyond a distracted nod, but he didn't fail to notice the tone of doubt in Theo's reply.
Up ahead of the boys, Hagrid had paused at a fork in the path. With a few gruff words and warnings, he ordered the group to split up, signalling for Theo to follow him, while Draco and Harry ventured off on their own, accompanied only by the dubious protection of his rather cowardly dog. Neither boy had time to protest beyond worried glances before Hagrid had hurried off with Theo in tow, leaving them alone in the moonlight. Harry was shivering slightly now, not, as he would no doubt have protested, for the distinct chill pervading the air, but form a bone deep fear. Something was wrong.
Beside him Draco's face was drawn and pale in the moonlight, and the breath clouding in front of his face was eerily sinister in the darkened woods. "We should get going, the quicker we get down this trail, the faster we can get back inside. Out of the cold y'know." False bravado coloured Draco's tone, but Harry didn't call him out on it, choosing instead to nod in agreement and set off at the older boy's side, trying to ignore the sense of dread that was creeping up on him.
The trees had spaced out as the boys had ventured further into the forest, and with the increasing areas of undergrowth, the variety of wildlife had diversified. As the pair walked along, Hagrid's dog loping steadily beside them, the trees around them seemed to come alive with wildlife. Rustling filled the bushes around them, insects scurried out of their path as they walked, and in the canopy above occasionally a pair of eyes could be seen, keenly observing their progress.
It was mere minutes before Harry spotted the glow between the trees. He pointed silently to Draco and indicated to him with one hand. Draco raised his wand to shoot sparks out of the end, signalling to the others that they had found something. He then proceeded after Harry who had begun to edge forward.
The trees opened out into a clearing, bluebells ringing the edges, and a stream down one side, descending into a miniature waterfall. In any other situation Harry would have claimed that the surroundings were idyllic, but the scene in the centre destroyed any semblance of beauty. A young unicorn, not more than two summers old lay on grass, stained silver with blood. Its eyes were red and wild, legs kicking futilely at an attacker that had presumably fled at the sound of approach. Harry ran to the creature and drooped to his knees in the sodden grass, he pulled the head of the foal toward him, and run his fingers through its mane in a soothing gesture, trying to ease the panic in its eyes. He had initially intended to attempt to staunch the blood flow, but up close he could see that the wound was far too deep. Jagged edges told of a struggle that had resulted in significant blood loss, far more than was survivable. So Harry could do naught but kneel there as the light faded from the emerald eyes, while Draco watched on, tears flowing unbidden down his cheeks.
Even many years later, none of the boys would be able to describe in much detail the trip out of the forest, emotions still too painful. Hagrid and Theo rejoined them quickly, and Hagrid swiftly led them from the forest, telling them that he would return alone.
Along their journey back towards the castle they were joined by a menagerie of magical creatures, silently following along beside them, always keeping just out of sight in the darkness, but near enough to make their presence felt. It was as if every denizen of the forest had come out of hiding to form a march of grief. And then, as the castle began to loom closer, suddenly in a crash of sound, their escort fled. The group froze in their march, glancing around the forest in trepidation. A figure darted out in front of them weaving through the trees, the world paused around them in a collective gasp of fear, as the hooded man glanced back to reveal a mouth stained silver, sacred blood leaving footprints of the damned.
The incident in the woods weighed heavily on the three boys' minds, and by the next morning their whole group of friends could be found huddled in an abandoned classroom researching the properties of unicorn blood. It came as no surprise to anyone that Hermione was the most successful in her research: "From what I've read Unicorn blood is one of the most potent ingredients in the magical world. However, its exceptionally rare because as you all know, anyone who kills a Unicorn is considered cursed – even after death their soul can never find rest. All potions that use it are highly illegal, partly due to their ingredients, but also because of their uses – enhancing magical power through theft from other wizards or witches, reanimation of corpses, and unnatural extension of life. There are a couple of healing potions that seem to use it, but the benefits would hardly seem worth risking your soul for." Daphne chucked at this rather darkly.
"I did find one odd thing," Hermione continued. "A number of the books I read mentioned something called the Sapien Scrolls, it sounds like some sort of spell book, or collection of books, but none of the refences go into any more detail?"
To Hermione's surprise the purebloods in the group all looked as clueless as she did, she had assumed that this was merely a case of knowledge she lacked as a result of her muggle upbringing.
When it seemed no one was going to answer, Harry eventually spoke up. "I heard my Dad mention it once. He was on a floo call and he'd warded the door against eavesdroppers, but I'd snuck in earlier without him noticing. I didn't hear more than the name before he realised I was in the room. I've never seen him so angry about anything, he made me promise to never mention the name again. He seemed terrified of the name, hardly dared to speak it – the same man who would proudly call Voldemort by name, just to piss off his supporters." There were some mild flinches at Voldemort's name, which only served to drive Harry's point home. None of them wanted to imagine what kind of knowledge could be contained in something that scared people more than the darkest wizard in centuries.
"Do you think we should be researching this? I mean, at this point the teachers are surely aware of what's going on, shouldn't we leave this up to them?" Draco's voice was rather tremulous, and he was fiddling with his shirt.
"As long as we don't go charging off into danger, I'm not sure how much it can hurt. Harry maybe don't tell your brother!" Harry laughed at Hermione's comment, Max was something of a quintessential Gryffindor, and if anyone was likely to run headlong into danger it would be him.
"Ok I won't tell my brother, but we keep looking into this. Keep an eye out for anything that could link to any of the other odd occurrences. If we find out anything that needs action, we inform the teachers. How does that sound?" Harry's friends nodded back at him, some more reluctantly than others. Soon books were spread out on every desk and the group began researching in earnest.
A/N - I'm not particularly happy with this chapter, and it's sorter than I would have liked. But I actually updated, so that's something! I'm changing the order around a bit, so let me know what you think.