Disclaimers: See Chapter 1 for more info.
Acknowledgements: To TooLazyToLogin for giving me the original idea for this series. To DoctorWhovian18, for being my beta-writer/reader for this series, for her ideas on pranking, ideas on other things about the story, her advice and helpfulness, and the list go on. To LOTCR, for her ideas for this story. I'd also like to thank ValueMyHeart for reviewing, following, and favoriting this story. To all my readers who are favoriting, following, and reviewing this story. And I'd also like to thank Frodo and the hobbits for their help with this story as well. Yes, that sounds crazy to the normal readers, but I'm still thanking Frodo and his friends anyway.
With the previous chapters, I had to go back and tweak a few things. For this chapter, I realize it's another long chapter, DoctorWhovian18 and Frodo had an idea for what Frodo could encounter in the Forbidden Forest. So, we'll see how it goes. :)
Frodo spent the rest of the night tossing and turning in his bed. He eventually found sleep, but had a rough dream involving a dark forest and meeting a strange half-man half-horse fellow. He wondered if the dream meant something, or rather was it meant to scare him.
The next morning didn't bring Frodo much luck. After checking the hourglass for Ravenclaw, and finding out the points that were lost, Frodo received a good, hard lecture from Aria, which actually wasn't that hard. Just an I-told-you-so statement: "I told you that would happen. All your troublemaker behavior got you into trouble."
Frodo was mildly annoyed, telling Aria, while retaining his cheekiness, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were cheering on the teachers."
Aria was a bit stunned, but she took pity on Frodo. "Frodo, I know everyone's depending on points and games, but that's all they are. Why does it matter?"
Frustrated, Frodo exclaimed, "Because winning the points means Ravenclaw is one step closer to winning the house cup. Now we have to make up for those lost points. Wouldn't you be upset?"
"Yeah, I would." Aria sighed. Here was her uptight behavior, but for this moment, it wasn't important. Calming down, Aria did her best to reassure him, "Frodo, you'll make up those points. I'd like to see Ravenclaw win."
This didn't give Frodo much encouragement.
Aria wanted to say more, but she backed down. Like Frodo, Aria hardly knew what to say. Ravenclaw losing points made her feel miserable inside, like they were defeated.
And it didn't stop there. In fact, things were turning out worse for Frodo as the days drew closer to exams. People who admired him, including the Muggle-born students and Muggle students, now thought him a traitor. Many of the students often ignored him, and the Ravenclaw Quidditch team had stopped talking to him.
In the few weeks before his exams, Frodo noticed a change in his friends as each had different reactions to what occurred: Sam was now more timid and flustered whenever he met Frodo. The poor hobbit boy hardly knew what to say, shuffling his feet and keeping his mouth shut. It was as if Ravenclaw losing those points made him stiff-necked and afraid. This got on Frodo's nerves fast, yet he didn't want to cause Sam more grief.
As a group of five, knowing what happened to Gryffindor and a little more aware that Frodo had suffered less than them, Merry, Pippin, Anne, Amy and Abigail did their best to cheer Frodo up in different ways. Anne thought Frodo deserved the punishment he would get from losing all those points. Merry, Pippin, Abigail and Amy, on the other hand, did what they could to make Frodo feel better, but Amy sided with Anne: Frodo was in deep trouble and Amy wouldn't give Frodo a rest for it. Frodo eventually chose to avoid her.
This did not turn out well.
Amy soon backed him into a corner, demanding an answer, "If you don't tell me what's wrong, Frodo, then…"
"Or what?" but this was not the best way to start. Finally being sincere and honest, Frodo gave his apology: "Look, I don't know how it happened. I was assisting Harry and Hermione with Norbert the dragon. Believe me, we wanted to get rid of him. Now he's gone and me, Harry and Hermione end up in trouble by McGonagall. I didn't mean to cause you trouble, but this is not your fault. The fault is mine. You weren't responsible for my detention, Amy. Don't stress over it."
"Well, I am stressing out. How are Gryffindor and Ravenclaw supposed to make up all those points?" asked Amy, still flustered.
Aria intervened, as she approached Frodo and sat next to him on a bench, "Because we'll find a way to make up those points. Or have you forgotten?"
"Should I know?" asked Frodo, quite confused.
Amy gasped in understanding. "Right. Thank you. Now I need to look up something."
"As do I!" said Abigail, remembering her first Harry Potter book.
Anne said, calmly, "Me too." She followed Amy and Abigail down the corridor, heading in the same direction they were to the Authors and Authoresses' Chamber.
Aria asked Frodo, concerned, "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine Aria," said Frodo. "I'm a little frazzled, but I'm doing well."
Aria nodded in understanding. "Good."
Beside this, Frodo had trouble speaking to Fredegar and Folco. Fatty was too swamped in his studying that he hardly spoke to any of their friends. Folco turned a blind eye in Frodo's direction. He hardly spoke about the points lost, which really set Frodo off. Frodo wasn't in the mood to not talk about Ravenclaw losing fifty points in one night. Folco seemed too distracted of himself to pay attention to Frodo's interests. Frodo didn't know whether to snap him out of it or leave him alone. But then Frodo himself spent more time with Aria than with his roommate.
o-o-o
On the week before exams started, Frodo received the same note as Harry, Hermione and Neville. On the note was the same message, which clearly said:
*Your detention will take place at eleven o' clock tonight.
Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.
Professor McGonagall
Being reminded that he still had detention, after the points lost fiasco, didn't help Frodo's mood. Instead, it made him feel worse. Aria knew the feeling and told him about her experience, hoping that Frodo would feel better:
"I get that feeling, too. It's what happens when you do something wrong, and we usually tell the truth–"
Frodo wasn't in the mood to hear this. "Aria, I know what this feels like. I'm feeling it now." He paused to collect himself. Calming down some, Frodo apologized, "I'm sorry. These past few weeks have been nothing short of… grim sadness." He shuddered at the thought.
Aria apologized, too, almost at random, "I'm sorry."
Frodo shrugged the thought off. "It's not your fault. I'm responsible for my actions."
"Yes, I suppose we do," said Aria, beaming a small smile his way.
Sometimes Frodo wished he could step in Aria's shoes, just to know what it's like to have such optimism and warm kindness. He almost felt jealous of her. She was too adorable for her own good. It made him stop and think that maybe his detention at eleven that night wouldn't be so bad.
He couldn't have been more wrong.
o-o-o
At eleven o' clock that night, Frodo said a short farewell to Aria before leaving the Ravenclaw Common Room. When he came to the bottom step, Frodo left the Ravenclaw Tower. As he walked down the seventh-floor corridor, feeling the troublemaker's downfall on him, Frodo met with Harry, Hermione and Neville.
Frodo asked the three, "How are you this evening?"
Neville did his best not to cry. Hermione wanted to say something, but whatever it was she simply chose to ignore him. It was Harry who spoke:
"We're doing good, but…"
"We deserve what we got," Hermione burst. "That dragon was a nuisance."
Frodo chuckled softly, "Can't argue there." Although he said about two weeks prior that he missed Norbert, Frodo was relieved as Harry and Hermione to be rid of the Norwegian Ridgeback.
Neville was alarmed. "How can you joke like this? We've got detention."
"And that's the least of your worries?" asked Frodo. He still had his cheekiness.
"Well…" Neville fell silent, unsure what to say. He was quite timid.
How Frodo managed not to show his shyness, he never knew. Yet here, in spite of having detention, Frodo's cheery mood returned, even if it was unusual. And it was only going to get better, as Filch was in the entrance hall as promised, along with Malfoy. Frodo wouldn't have suspected Malfoy also had detention, yet here he was.
When everyone had gathered, Filch led the five students out of the castle and onto the grounds. The grounds were dark, with the exception of the moon, which cast its light down until the clouds scudded over, throwing them in darkness, and Filch's lantern, lit by the caretaker before they set out. Filch was in an apparently good mood that evening, as he spoke about previous medieval detentions that included students being hung by their wrists from the ceiling for a few days. The very thought disgusted Frodo, but also gave him a warning about not getting on Filch's good mood.
They approached Hagrid's hut. The thought of having detention with Hagrid didn't seem so bad, at least until Filch snapped Frodo out of his reverie. Hagrid came towards them. Filch did his best to make sure the giant wasn't so kind to the five students. Hagrid wouldn't hear of it.
Before he walked back to the castle, Filch grabbed Frodo's collar and said, wringing him about, "And this here is the reason for my bad mood. You'll want to keep an eye on him, Hagrid." He released Frodo with a jerk. He returned to the gloom of the grounds, grumbling as he went.
Once Filch was out of earshot, Hagrid asked Frodo, "Yer alrigh', Frodo?"
Frodo nodded. Although, Frodo felt in the mood to give Filch a few good pranks.
Hagrid must have known what Frodo was thinking, because he told him, flat out, "Yeh'll not be pulling pranks on Filch tonight, Frodo. Yer want to stay at Hogwarts, don'tcha? Then yeh've gotta pay for yer wrong. Understand?"
Frodo nodded a second time. The last thing he wanted to do was get Hagrid upset.
"Good," said Hagrid. He told everyone, "Now, what we'll be doin' tonight is dangerous, and I don' want no one takin' risks. Wait a moment." He lit a lantern, before he led them to the edge of the forest. There on the ground, he showed Harry, Hermione, Neville, Frodo, and Malfoy silvery puddles that were in different spots on the dirt and grass. Hagrid explained, "Tha' be unicorn blood. I found a unicorn dead last Wednesday. The unicorn this week appears to be injured badly. We need to find the unicorn an', if we have to, put it out of its misery.
"We'll split up into two parties. Whoever finds the unicorn, send up green sparks like this," Hagrid showed the five students by casting green sparks with his pink umbrella. He watched as they repeated the pattern. Impressed, Hagrid went on, "Tha' good. Now, when we're ever in trouble, send up red sparks."
At that, Frodo used his hand magic to shoot up red sparks. The sparks stopped several inches above his head. He grinned, but from the glares of Hagrid, Harry and Hermione, this goofing off wasn't appropriate. Frodo apologized, sheepishly, "Sorry. I just wanted to test it out."
"Righ'," said Hagrid, not pleased but knowing this wasn't the time for antics.
"I want Fang," announced Malfoy.
"All right, but I warn yeh, he is a coward," said Hagrid. "So me, Harry, Hermione an' Frodo'll go one way an' Draco, Neville, an' Fang'll go the other. The unicorn'll be staggering aroun' since last night, my guess is. There's blood everywher'. If one of us finds the unicorn, remember green sparks into the air."
Frodo shot green sparks up a couple of inches above his head. He chuckled to himself.
That set Hermione off. "Frodo, this is no time for your gags."
"I was just having fun," said Frodo, chuckling.
"We don' have time for fun and games. This is serious business, Frodo," said Hagrid. Convinced that Frodo wasn't going to pull another gag on them, Hagrid said to the group, "Let's go, an' before I forget, keep ter the path." Holding out his lantern, Hagrid led the way into the dark forest.
Frodo was used to travelling through forests, since being in the Shire, but being in this forest at night felt ancient, mysterious and foreboding. It was too quiet. Frodo's mind played tricks on him. Although he was lucky to be in a group, this particular forest felt unwelcoming, as if he didn't belong there.
When they came to a fork in the earthen path, the two parties went their separate ways, following the trail of silver blood. Hagrid, Harry, Hermione and Frodo took the left path, while Malfoy, Neville and Fang took the right. As Frodo followed the others, he kept feeling that something pure was watching him, as if they were protecting him from any sign of danger.
Just when he thought they wouldn't find the unicorn, Frodo was hoisted into the air by Hagrid, who set him down behind a huge oak tree next to Harry and Hermione. Frodo wanted to protest, to admit that yes he was a hobbit and there were Big Folk about at home, but in the moment he was dreading whatever was coming. Unsure whether to come out, even after Hagrid said it was all right, Frodo spotted something moving behind the brush. What was it – something white? He was sure he had seen something white move with such grace through the bushes and behind the tree…
"We have one more student, but I don' know where he is," Hagrid said a short distance away.
Realizing he needed to move out from his hiding place, Frodo trudged forward, moving closer to where he heard Hagrid's voice. When Frodo at last reached the trio, Hagrid led him, Harry and Hermione past the half-man half-horse folk. Frodo stared at the two for a moment before darting back to Hagrid.
Doing his best to keep him mind fixed on the present, Frodo asked the giant, "What were those… men?"
"They're centaurs. Seems you missed a pointless conversation, Frodo. They hardly told us where the unicorn was, if they spotted it," said Hagrid.
"So it wasn't them that killed–"
"Did it sound like hooves to you?" asked Hagrid, repeating to him. "No, it was something else that made that sound, killin' the unicorns."
"What's that?" asked Hermione, grabbing Hagrid's arm. "Hagrid, I saw red sparks! The others are in trouble!"
"Wait here," said Hagrid, blundering through the forest. "I'll be back. And remember to stay on the path."
While Harry and Hermione talked, Frodo spotted a fluid creature trotting about a short distance away. Once again, he felt this pure sensation of protection on him, as if he could sense it radiating off the creature.
Minutes passed. At last Hagrid returned with Malfoy, Neville and Fang. Due to what Malfoy pulled, Hagrid decided on the spot to change groups, with only Neville and Harry switching spots. Frodo would have to stay in the same group, but whether it was because Hagrid wanted to keep an eye on him, in case he horsed around again, Frodo didn't know. What he did know was that something was following him, but it wasn't bad… or so he hoped.
They started out again. Even though Frodo was determined to find the unicorn, the last thing he wanted to see was a dead one. He lagged behind Hagrid, Hermione and Neville in minutes. That's when he heard the faint sound of hooves. More determined to discover where the sound was coming from, Frodo journeyed through the forest, doing the one thing Hagrid told him not to do: stray from the path.
Frodo walked for several minutes. The trail of blood became less fleeting the further he went. His ears picked up on different sounds, each more distinct from the last. A single thought pressed his mind: he was lost. Or was he? Where were the others? Hagrid wasn't with him, he realized. Well, surely he wouldn't run into any danger…
The hooves drew closer. Worried, but armed with his hand magic, beginner though he was, Frodo readied his hand. But as the moonlight blazed down from between the branches, Frodo lowered his hand. Relief spread on his face as a horse with a white coat, a silver mane and tail, and a spiraled horn. Nervousness swelled inside Frodo. He didn't want to scare the beast, but… wait, it was a live unicorn! Maybe Frodo needed to inform Hagrid of his find.
The unicorn dug the ground a few times with its cloven hoof. Sensing no danger, the unicorn advanced, sniffing him and tilting its head down next to him. At first, there was no response from Frodo, but the unicorn moved its head, whinnying for him to pet it. Frodo did as he was told, not wanting to upset the unicorn. As he petted the creature, Frodo found himself adjusting to the beast. He was accustomed to ponies in the Shire, but he had never seen a unicorn up close. The unicorn knelt on the ground in front of him, moving its rear legs down.
Frodo asked, "You want me to ride you?"
The unicorn grunted in reply, nodding its head in swift strokes. Grabbing a fistful of the unicorn's silver mane, Frodo hoisted himself onto its back. He held on as the unicorn stood up and galloped through the forest. The view above seemed much different. He forgotten how much he was afraid of heights, but then flying on a broomstick helped him forget. Frodo did not know how long they kept riding, but every minute that passed, he could hear his friends' voices drawing closer, as well as that of a new male voice. He was almost back to the group. He knew he was!
"This is where I leave you," said a male voice, ringing out the loudest now.
Coming out from the bushes and back onto the path, Frodo watched as another centaur walked away from Harry. The others turned around to face Frodo now; even Harry was staring in amazement at the new sight. The unicorn moved its slender legs down to the ground, enough for Frodo to climb off its back. Moving to where he could see the unicorn's head, Frodo stared longingly at his new friend. The unicorn had gotten him out of a scrap when he was lost. He did not know how to repay the creature.
"Thank you for bringing me back to my friends," said Frodo to the unicorn.
The unicorn lowered its head again, allowing Frodo the chance to pet its front mane. Before Frodo had the chance to stroke its silver hair some more, the unicorn jerked its head up. Frodo was now alarmed and confused. The unicorn neighed, as if laughing at its own joke, and then trotted back into the forest. Frodo let out a small sigh, impressed with himself and the horse-like creature. Even a unicorn could have a sense of humor.
Hagrid got his attention, "I didn' expect unicorns to meet boys. They usually find themselves meeting with girls, as is the myth."
"Then it is wrong, the myth," said Frodo, still watching the unicorn until it disappeared behind the trees.
Harry stood next to Frodo, forcing the hobbit boy to turn his gaze to him. Harry whispered in Frodo's ear, "I've got some new information for you. But I'll wait until morning to tell you, if that's all right?"
Frodo replied, whispering back, "Yeah, it is."
o-o-o
Frodo returned to the Ravenclaw Common Room to find Aria asleep on the couch. She had been waiting for him to return. Why would she do that? Was it because she was his fangirl? Frodo suspected it was more than some fangirl's daydream that Aria was waiting to hear news of his journey in the Forbidden Forest. Kneeling in front of the couch, Frodo shook Aria gently, only to hear her say something about school paperwork.
"Aria, wake up," Frodo murmured.
Aria opened her eyes, jolting upright upon seeing him. Frodo raised his hands, hoping she would calm down. Aria did calm down a few moments later, staring at him and slowly remembering why she had stayed out here.
She said, grateful to see Frodo, "How was your detention?"
"Interesting," said Frodo, sitting on the couch next to her. "I traveled into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid, looking for an injured unicorn. Instead, I found a live unicorn that wanted me to pet it. It was the unicorn who led me back to Hagrid's."
"What did you do, get yourself lost? Frodo," said Aria, distraught in her voice.
"I have this tendency to wander off on my own, Aria," said Frodo.
Aria thought for a moment, before declaring softly, "Maybe I should read 'The Lord of the Rings'."
"Well, that's my confirmation for you, of who I am," said Frodo.
Aria yawned. She asked, tired, "Anything else?"
Frodo shook his head. It was better not to inform her of any news, even after Harry told him what he discovered in the Forbidden Forest. However, Frodo did tell her, out of concern, "Come on. We should get to bed."
Aria nodded. Standing up, she walked with Frodo until they reached the door to the Girls' Dormitory. They said their farewells for the night. Once they separated, Frodo ran up the stairs to the Boys' Dormitory. Folco was already asleep. Changing into his night clothes, Frodo pulled back the sheets of his bed and tucked himself in. Sleep overcame him in minutes. He had no dream, yet felt this push-pull tug between satisfaction and dread.
I'll admit there were bumps in the road a couple of times with this chapter, but I made it through all right. Let me know in your reviews what you think. Okay, bye. :)
Footnotes:
*This note from Professor McGonagall is found in Chapter 15, "The Forbidden Forest", from the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone.