AN: I wanted to update at least one of my stories for the Christmas season. So, I hope you enjoy.
Whatever was up with fanfiction last month is cleared up, so if you read up to chapter 44 and missed chapter 45 because it was 'vanished' you can go back to read it now.
Stay safe and here's to a better New Year.
-Crow
Harry sighed, outwardly the picture of a bored and moody pre-pubescent tween, but inside was a bored, moody, and fuming pre-pubescent tween.
He was obviously pretty resentful over the miserable dungeon-dweller's seeming mission-in-life to find every possible opportunity to inflict humiliation or punishment on an eleven-year-old. Anyone there could testify that the whole 'fight' between him and Weasley was an accident courtesy of the redhead's eagerness, a too-well-sealed cork, and pure misfortune. But, naturally, Hogwarts seemed to have its own rulebook for the universe.
'Gravity'? Psh! Send that tap-dancing teapot over this way and we'll laugh about it over dragon steaks and pixie dust.
So, here he was late Friday night, being led by the limping, crabby janitor-equivalent Mr. Filch. The creepy (and trust him, he knew 'creepy') old guy wore a gnarled sneer and a heavy, murky oil lamp to light the path as they left the castle's main entrance and stalked down the gravel path towards the small hut on the edge of the property.
"Got the last one, now get to it," Filch snapped, turning on his heel and leaving Harry with Hagrid and, who he realized, were a few other students barely illuminated in the sooty oil lantern Hagrid held which probably stored an entire barrel's-worth of oil to keep lit.
Harry was unsurprised to see Weasley (the 'Ronald' variety) alongside Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas. On the other side, sulked a disdainful Malfoy, pointing his nose up and sneering at the others, rather purposefully shunned away from the rest.
"Well hello, Harry!" Hagrid greeted cheerfully. "A'right, everyone jus' gather 'round now. Yer all here for your detentions. Professor Dumbledore requested I take 'em over seein' as I could use some extra eyes 'round the Forest lately."
"The Forest?! Are you mad?!" Malfoy yelped, sneer shifting into something still prideful and derisive, but with a hint of anxiety.
"Now, now, 's no need to get upset. Perfectly safe, these forests. Won't be goin' too far in, jus' lookin' 'round the edges. You lot stay put, while I go get some things we'll be needin'." Hagrid beamed, lumbering up the steps into his hut.
The minute he was gone, Malfoy seemed to puff right back up like a pigeon, "So, Potter, nice to see you finally put in your place and get your consequences, eh?"
"Shove off, Malfoy!" Ron snapped, "You're the coward who set us up that night! 'Midnight duel', my arse!"
The pale Slytherin scoffed dismissively, "As if I needed to 'set up' anything. Pathetic, especially seeing as you were the only one who seemed stupid enough to get caught."
"Ha! Says the one who got caught right alongside us just last week!" Weasley crowed.
Malfoy flushed, and snarled back, "Well, I'd bet people would love to know how a bloody dragon was on school property. Especially seeing as you three were the ones out in the corridors on the night it went missing!"
Seamus and Dean shifted uncomfortably while Ron smirked confidently, "Yeah? Prove it. McGonagall didn't believe you, why should anyone else? A dragon? In Hogwarts? Ridiculous." The snake's snarl faltered with clear frustration and he looked away with a bit-back retort, but not without a low mutter involving 'traitors' and 'half-breeds'.
"A'right!" Hagrid bellowed, walking out of his house. "Let's get goin'! Lots of ground to cover in the Forest tonight. Perfectly safe, don't you worry."
He hefted his crossbow and slotted a bolt the size of a harpoon into the mechanism with a heavy *clu-chunk* and an easy-going smile.
"Perfectly safe."
Harry was pleasantly at-ease in this forest. Living in the Mansion all those years meant he was very familiar with the dense forests surrounding it. A dark, eerie, fog-covered forest filled with unspeakable creatures and a constant sense of being watched was basically a Tuesday night stroll to work off dinner.
Still, he wasn't oblivious to the way the Gryffindor trio huddled around Ron's lantern and Malfoy was noticeably more pale and jumpy after leaving Hagrid's hut. Every now and then, a branch would snap off somewhere in the distance and the others would freeze until Hagrid nudged them forward. Harry thought it was hilarious when Seamus almost wet himself whispering 'Banshee' after a bird shrieked above them.
Hagrid, however, seemed to think they were all just charming woodland creatures and contentedly lumbered ahead, his massive boarhound, Fang, looking comically tiny snuffling around the leaves of the path. Occasionally, he'd say something about finding some creature-or-another that way or pointing to that tufty fern or slithering vine and remarking cheerily how this one's lethally poisonous or that one's venomous (meaning one poisons you if you eat it, and with the other, the plant poisons you as it eats you).
After a minute, Fang let out a bark and bounded ahead into the brush.
"Hol' up!" Hagrid announced in his 'whisper' as he followed the dog to a small clearing where Fang was walking agitatedly, nose-to-the-ground. Kneeling down, he inspected the clearing floor and motioned for them to come closer.
Harry realized that the ground had small puddles of a viscous, green fluid that shimmered with a pearly, rainbow sheen, like oil in a rainstorm.
The enormous man dipped two fingers into the puddle and held them up under the oil lamp's light, rubbing the stuff between his fingers and nodding to himself. "See this? Tha's unicorn blood. Found another one dead, jus' a month ago. They're bein' spooked deeper into the fores'. This one's fresh, probably attacked tonigh', by the looks of it."
He wiped his fingers off on his jacket and hefted his crossbow with grim stoicism. "Tha's what we're here for. Tryin' to find the poor creature and either seein' if we can help it, or... puttin' it out of its misery." He sighed, looking about the clearing for any clear direction the bloodstains may lead.
"We'll split up and cover more ground," He announced, glancing about the group. "Now then, Weasley you'll be with Harry and Malfoy, there, start goin' tha' direction. Take Fang wit' you. Finnegan and Thomas, you'll be wit' me and we'll be headin' tha' way. Anyone get into any trouble, jus' send some sparks up wit' yer wand. A'right?" He beamed, already lumbering with Dean and Seamus scrambling to catch up.
Harry huffed, turning to his own two 'teammates' who were already bickering over the lamp. Wordlessly, he yanked it out of their hands and already started along the path, Fang warily pacing beside him. The dog still didn't quite trust the dark-haired boy, especially since he smelled strongly of the boy-who-smelled-like-blood-and-bleach and the man-who-was-not-a-man-who-smelled-of-darkness-and-lightning.
"Oi, Potter, who elected you leader?" Malfoy contested.
"Sod off, snake, he's a brilliant leader!" The other snarled.
Harry heaved a sigh as he ignored their bickering dissolve into insults. It lasted a surprisingly long time as they went further and further into the forest, but none of it came to blows or spellfire or even raised voices. Both were too terrified at the moment to act on any bravado at the risk of attracting... attention.
"Say, Weasley?" Harry spoke out at last.
"Yeah, Harry?" The redhead dropped his argument with the blonde in a heartbeat.
"What, exactly, eats a unicorn?" Harry vowed to pay a little more attention when Toby started a rant about the things he learned in the Magical Beast books.
Ron's face screwed with thought, "Ummm, nothing really, I don't think. My brother, Charlie, was always more into magical creatures, but I remember him saying unicorns are 'pure' or something, so nothing really eats them."
Malfoy scoffed, "Figure's a dunce like you'd give that answer. Everyone knows... well, everyone who grew up in a proper family," he jabbed. "Would know that unicorns are sacred by magic. Their blood is cursed if anyone drinks it or eats their flesh. There are no natural predators because nothing carnivorous ever dares to eat it and be cursed. It's instinctive."
Ron looked ready to retort at the earlier insult, when Harry nipped it in the bud, "So, you're saying that nothing attacks a unicorn?"
Malfoy smugly responds, "Exactly. And unicorns are strong, too. They can outrun almost anything and will gore any wizard that tries to attack it. Only Dark creatures would kill a unicorn. Any pureblood with a knut in their pocket for a book could tell you that much." He turned mockingly towards the Weasley at the end.
"And they'd have to be very fast, very strong, and/or very powerful?" Harry summarized.
"Of course, weren't you listening?" the Slytherin sneered.
"And we are here... alone... in a forest with something that has been actively hunting and killing unicorns? And succeeding?"
...
The pair paled to the point they both looked murky-green in the oil lamp. Harry took a small moment to enjoy their faces of grim realization before addressing the problem. His heart hammered against his chest as he started looking at the long shadows of the trees with a newfound wariness. Either Dumbledore was an idiot to trust Hagrid's judgement of what's "safe" or the old headmaster was trying to kill them all.
His money was on the former. Though, for the others, he wasn't about to let that 'die a painful death' comment at the opening feast slip by.
He really needs to carry his electrodes around more often.
"What's that sound?" Malfoy hissed with fear.
The group paused, hearing the small pop and sizzle of the oil lamp, the faint whines from Fang, the halting, heavy breathing from the other two boys, but over all of that, the out-of-place sound of slurping.
Raising the lantern, at the edge of the beam, he caught sight of a stark white figure on the ground. The light reached further and showed a horse-like creature lay on its side in a puddle of dark, oily fluid with a black shadow hunched over it.
The figure's head rose from the unicorn and under a hood, it snarled with green-iridescent blood dribbling from its lips.
"AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!" Malfoy and Ron screamed in tandem, bolting back the way they came, wands alternating between sending a shower of multi-colored sparks everywhere and becoming a floodlight beam to light the path.
Harry raised the lantern and his wand at the creature as he backed away, but the figure rose ethereally from the downed unicorn and began gliding his way sinisterly. Harry racked his brain for any spells he might consider useful, but all of them were too low-level, not-lethal, or underpowered. The most useful in his arsenal was 'incendio', but it wasn't remotely powerful enough to...
He looked to the lantern in his hands and threw it into the ground between them.
The oil splattered out, catching the remaining fire of the wick and setting the forest floor between them alight. The figure reared back, its arms hiding its face under the dark cloak as the blaze flared brightly.
Harry turned to run back down the path when he heard a whistle sail through the air and felt his legs lock together with a tightly-bound rope. Slamming with a 'thud' on the forest floor, he shifted on his back and grabbed at the conjured bindings around his legs, trying to break them.
The figure's arm made a grand sweeping-motion towards the fire in front of it which extinguished in a cloud of pale, blue spell-mist. The figure's arm aimed at Harry as it glided closer and closer, taking its time to watch the boy struggle to inch backwards on the ground.
A pale hand emerged from the arm, wielding a wand aimed directly at his head. A fiendish grin spread from the small path of visible face under the hood. It began to speak-
*fwip*
*CRUNCH*
"Ryeeeeaaaagggghhh!" The figure screeched as a black tendril wrapped around its extended arm and constricted it to a broken, mangled mess in a second.
The tendril snapped like a whip, sending the figure sailing through the clearing and landing with a crack against a tree. The figure jumped back to its feet and seemed to falter at what it saw at the edge of the clearing. Harry followed its gaze.
Slenderman in his unglamoured horror stood ominously, barely illuminated by what little moonlight filtered through the forest behind him, . Black tentacles writhed from his back, eager to impale this threat to his ward.
The figure growled nastily at the entity before, in a swirl of its cloak, it began to glide out of the clearing and sailed into the darkness.
"Hello, Harry." Slender greeted, striding forward.
Harry smiled gratefully up at his guardian, "It's good to see you, too. How'd you get here?"
"I've been spending some time exploring these woods, making it part of my 'patrol' while I'm here. Particularly since Quirrell always seemed to flee towards them. I hadn't seen hide nor hair of him until just now."
"So that was Quirrell?" Harry's eyebrows rose.
"I believe so," Slender replied, using the same 'fingernail' he carves his Slender Port symbols with to slash the ropes apart. Once severed, they quickly dissolved to nothingness and Harry got to his feet, facing the entity.
"I felt it would be prudent to follow you when I noticed your little 'squadron' enter the forest. And I'm grateful that I did." His guardian said. "I ought to have some words with your professors about such a hazardous method of 'detention', but that can wait for later."
Harry nodded, looking back at the unicorn at the edge of the clearing. Even dead, bleeding, and slightly mangled, there something gracefully beautiful in a tragic sort of way. Like a unicorn just can't die in an 'ugly' way, "Why did Quirrell want to kill the unicorn? He looked like he was drinking its blood. Malfoy said that's cursed, but didn't actually say what the curse is."
"I recall Toby saying something like that. Unicorn blood possesses a property that forces an individual to continue living, even if it's biologically impossible. It's a very painful way to continue existence and unless maintained indefinitely, leads to the drinker weakening over time and dying a long, drawn-out, and agonizing death."
"So, why would Quirrell do that? I mean, I get the whole 'extending your life' thing. He seemed like a coward, so he'd probably do anything to stay alive, but with those consequences, why would he drink it?"
Slender hummed, "I'm not entirely sure, but he was not the man he portrayed himself as in your classes. The stuttering, doddering, fearful fool act was just that; an act." He straightened and looked into the dark gloom of the forest the cloaked figure flew off to. "As for why he's skulking around Hogwarts right now... I'm not sure of that either, but I have some suspicions. First this Flamel character, then the mess on the Third Floor, and now this?" He heaved a breathless sigh. "I regret allowing us to return after the winter break."
"The Third Floor?" Harry picked up.
Slender startled, "Ah... erm... It's nothing, just... your letter about the creature and it all seemed... er..."
"You've been to the third floor?" He pressed doggedly.
The entity's shoulders slumped in defeat, "Yes. I was concerned about what exactly was going on, keeping a dangerous animal like that in a castle with students. I felt it bore investigation, so I went inside. It seems like a series of 'trials' so to speak. Like a gauntlet... the multiple-tests-in-a-row kind, not the shiny, metal glove.
"They were relatively easy for me to bypass the locked doors and such without alerting anyone to my presence. However, when I got to the end, it was just a dead-end room with a mirror.
"I could sense something incredibly powerful inside the mirror's reflection. A kind of compressed-dimensional plane for an object to be concealed in. However, this mirror was more than just a prison. It's a 'trial' in itself, though I can't tell exactly what it's meant to do.
"From what I determined, the mirror has a limited 'awareness' or perhaps 'sentience' and can establish a mental link with the viewer. I could sense it trying to get 'hooks' into my mind, but it couldn't figure out my complex consciousness, so it was unresponsive.
"I spoke with Eyeless Jack to try and get some insight and while he said he's encountered it before, it's relatively harmless. Supposedly showing the viewer their greatest desires. But he was reluctant to talk about what he saw, so I'm wary if there may be a flip-side to the mirror's function. Plus, if it was arranged as the 'final guard' of this object, I'm sure it's not as innocent as anyone may suspect. People wouldn't put so much effort to guard an object if it were not of value."
"What is it?" Harry asked, curious.
"If it is what I suspect, it may be a terribly dangerous artifact to be left in the possession of either Dumbledore or Quirrell. I've thought it over and decided we need to either destroy it or take it away from here and hide it. This object is too dangerous to the Balance to allow to exist."
Harry stepped forward determinedly, "I want to help!"
His guardian 'smiled', "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Harry, but I don't want to involved you unnecessarily. You, Adrian, and Nikolaus are all under scrutiny by the school and its professors. Any suspicion of your involvement will immediately put you all in jeopardy."
"True, but it's Dumbledore, right?" Harry pointed out. "He'd probably suspect we're involved in it anyways."
Slender gave a rueful, breathless sigh, "That is also true, but if we succeed, I don't think it's wise to have any degree of suspicion laid at our feet. Best to keep this as covert as we can.
"Something is not right and I feel like whatever's behind it was waiting for us to arrive to spring it... or perhaps more accurately, waiting for you, Harry.
"I want you to watch yourself-"
*thwack*
Harry yelped as he stared at the arrow shaft sticking out of his guardian's chest over his 'heart'. Slender instinctively curled his body around the wound, tentacles erupting and flailing to ward off attackers in his vulnerable state.
Before Harry could figure out just what the Hell happened, he felt a pair of arms grab under his arms and hoisting him up. He felt a sensation of vertigo as he was swung about like a sack of potatoes and was rushed away from the clearing and his guardian.
With a clatter of hoofbeats, his captor galloped away on his horse... no... wait.
Firenze galloped faster than he had in years. He hoped his arrow had done the Creature in, but the enraged flailing of its strange appendages suggested it wasn't in its death throws. So, he kept running as fast as he was able.
In his arms, the wizard-child kept struggling against his grip. He hadn't planned an extra passenger that night.
He'd been sent out to the area as the Elders foresaw a great act of malice tonight by Mars's wrathful glow. The scent of unicorn blood on the wind had him seeking out the Dark One. He had hoped to stop the disgusting plight on their forest once and for all.
Then, the heavy, unclean scent of an oily fire drew him to a clearing.
Arriving there, he smelt the ravaged unicorn's corpse mingling with the strong, malodorous miasma of the Dark One, itself, but the Dark One had already left.
Instead he found a wizard-child in his school robes, standing and seeming to speak one-sidedly to a Creature.
A Creature tall and spindled like a tree given human form, shrouded in strange, black clothing that made it seem all the more unsettling. It carried itself with a grace and poise like a spider ready to strike. And above all, its head was a blank, white imitation of their own. Hairless, eyeless, silent, faceless.
The Forest Stalker.
No one in the tribe had encountered anything like it before in their many centuries guarding this forest. But sometime before the winter, a scout found the creature walking, almost gliding, through their woods. Patrols increased and sightings of the creature became more frequent. It seemed non-hostile, despite noticing the scouts, but never initiated any kind of contact. Oftentimes vanishing in black smoke upon discovery. However, it's presence coinciding with the Dark One's murderous spree had the Elders on edge.
It was Elder Adelheid that had named it. From her stories, very old stories, of a creature in the territory the world now calls 'Germany'. In a dense, dark forest like this where a Creature would walk between the trees, preying upon unfortunate travelers and spiriting away lost children.
She had recalled it from an old horror story her own great-grandfather used to scare young colts into behaving. A remnant of the stallion's home-tribe in that same dark, dense wood before wizards wiped them out and forced the remaining centaurs to flee.
The stories told how the Creature would always target children and being next to the humans' school... the tribe was split. Those like Bane dismissed it, saying the wizard-kind should mind their own young and any disappearances are their own negligence. Others, like Elder Adelheid and Firenze, argued to protect any children they find in the Creature's grasp, even at the risk of directing its anger towards the tribe.
So, when faced with this sight, he drew his bow and wounded the Forest Stalker before grabbing the wizard-boy and running.
It was only after running for some time that he noticed his passenger's identity and redoubled his efforts. The Creature had taken an interest in Destiny's Child, Harry Potter. The elders and the stars predicted great things for this boy's destiny, and terrible consequences if anything befell him before he could fulfill it.
The Creature's interest could lead to the boy "disappearing" like so many other children, which could spell catastrophe for their tribe and, perhaps, the world.
"Let me go!" The wizard-child shouted, squirming agitatedly in his grip looking backwards. "Slendy! Slendy!"
The child was calling out to the creature. Trying to return to it. Some of Elder Adelheid's stories claimed the creature had a hypnotic effect on its prey, keeping them rooted in fear or twisting their minds to worship and follow the entity's will.
He had to outrun the creature and its grasp, and hope Harry Potter would not fall under its spell again.
"HELP!"
He heard the rustling of tree branches behind him and hazarded a glance, horror instilling in his mind. The creature had developed several, spindly black legs from its 'back' and scuttled deftly through the forest's obstacles with the finesse of an enormous, black spider. It leapt from tree to tree, branch to branch, doggedly pursuing them until it had attained the child.
"Let me go! Let! Me! Go!" Destiny's Child cried, his hand thumping against anything it could reach.
"Don't listen to the Creature, Harry Potter!" Firenze begged, shouting over the rushing wind of their escape. "I'll get you back to safety with Hagrid, but you must resist its call!" He desperately hoped he could get through to the child, past whatever spell the Creature had put on him.
To his relief, it seemed to work. The wizard-child's eyes widened in realization and he looked directly at the Creature in pursuit. The struggling ceased and Firenze was able to run much more effectively without his charge squirming like an eel.
As he gained speed, he looked behind him once more to see the Creature was further back. No, the Creature was slowing its pace.
Perhaps it had felt its hold on the child weaken. Whether it considered Harry Potter lost prey or if he would return, for now he could only keep running.
Eventually, the Creature stopped its pursuit and allowed itself to fall into the darkness of the woods behind them.
The centaur continued his harsh gallop, vigilant of his surroundings for any glimpse of the pale, white head or the black, spindly body among the trees. His legs and lungs protested, but he'd kept going until he'd run almost fully around the centaur's territory of the forest and returned to around where he'd first begun.
Harry Potter remained silent the entire way, something Firenze was glad for. He hoped the child had rid himself of the Creature's influence.
At last, he smelled the heavy, waxy scent of burning oil and followed it to the only yellow glow in the forest. Hagrid stood with several more wizard-children and his faithful dog.
"Firenze!" Hagrid shouted, arms raised urgently, then he gasped seeing the figure with him. "Harry!"
The wizard-giant rushed forward to heft the child to the ground and look him over, seemingly satisfied with his condition.
"We though' you were a goner, Harry!" Hagrid blubbered, dabbing his eyes and nose with his canvas-sized handkerchief. "When Ron and Malfoy came into the clearing withou' you, we were fearin' the worst! Thank you, Firenze."
"Dark forces work in the forest tonight, my friend," The centaur intoned quietly. "I suggest you return to your school. Mars is bright tonight, and that bodes ill for all in harm's way."
Firenze watched as Hagrid nodded and began collecting the students to return to Hogwarts.
Then the clearing lit up as the ground exploded between them.
When Harry first realized he was being kidnapped, he tried whatever he could to get out of the captor's grip, but the centaur was surprisingly strong and moving at speeds so fast he wasn't sure he'd survive an impact to the ground.
'Hold on, Harry! I'm coming!'
He managed to keep in contact with Slendy as his guardian ran to catch up with them, letting him know his position at all times. All the while, he kept trying to get out of the magical creature's armlock.
"Don't listen to the Creature, Harry Potter! I'll get you back to safety with Hagrid, but you must resist its call!"
Oh.
It wasn't a kidnapping.
It was an attempted 'rescue' from a 'strange creature in the woods'.
He stopped struggling and used years of quiet mind-focusing meditation to clear away every thought to focus on one phrase:
'Slender. Safe. Retreat.'
'Slender. Safe. Retreat.'
'Slender. Safe. Retreat.'
It wasn't like 'talking back' via Slendy's teleportation. More like… letting Slender's casual awareness of emotions pick up the singular message. Like going on a HAM radio set and just spouting out one phrase in hopes someone hears.
It was clunky, clumsy, and frankly gave him a massive headache.
His guardian's scuttling form stopped gaining speed and kept pace a few yards behind.
'Are you saying you believe you're safe right now?'
Harry managed a quick nod, barely a bounce on a galloping centaur's back, but he was sure his guardian saw it. 'I see. I'll retreat, but be careful. I won't be far.'
And with that, the pursuit slowed and he watched his guardian retreat into the woods. The centaur galloped ahead regardless, but he still felt his guardian 'buzzing in' every few minutes to let Harry know he was discretely tailing them from deeper in the forest.
Eventually, the centaur trotted up to a familiar, murky yellow light and Hagrid seemed relieved to find him again.
"We though' you were a goner, Harry! When Ron and Malfoy came into the clearing withou' you, we were fearin' the worst!"
Harry cast a nasty side-eye at the shaking Slytherin and the 'brave' Gryffindor in question.
Hagrid turned to the centaur with a grateful smile, "Thank you, Firenze."
"Dark forces work in the forest tonight, my friend," The centaur, Firenze, said. "I suggest you return to your school. Mars is bright tonight, and that bodes ill for all in harm's way."
That sounded like the most logical thing anyone had said all night.
Then, of course, the Universe decided it couldn't possibly be that easy.
A man's voice shouted something from the edge of the clearing, followed by a jet of orange light that impacted the ground. The soil blew outward like a landmine, pushing Hagrid away and launching Harry backwards towards Firenze.
A literal 10-foot-high wall of red-orange fire erupted from the ground, twisting in the air, as Harry was separated from the others.
The fire illuminated the clearing, allowing him to make out the figure in a black cloak, Quirrell, standing at the edge. His wand was raised and the small bit of face visible under the hood was twisted in a nasty grin.
"Incarcerous!"
Firenze leapt out of the way as a tangle of black ropes flew past him and 'nabbed' a tree. The centaur raised his bow, firing into the figure relentlessly, forcing him on the defensive. Arrow after arrow was deflected off of the figure effortlessly with a well-timed flick.
Harry grimly noted that the centaur's quiver was rapidly emptying. He quickly slunk to the side, making sure the wizard's attention was entirely focused on Firenze's next movements to block the next arrow. He didn't exactly know too many spells, so he had to make do with what he's got.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" He shouted, aiming the wand at the figure. Quirrell faltered as he was lifted off the ground 20 feet, flailed around like a kite in a hurricane, then dropped unceremoniously to the ground.
The man scrambled to reorient himself, but Firenze took the opportunity and shot an arrow right into his shoulder.
Crying out in pain, the figure's concentration broke and the fire flared out of existence. Harry's eyes strained to readjust with only the light of Hagrid's lamp once again.
"Run!" Firenze shouted, bow still aimed at the figure as he swept Harry around and onto his back. Beside them, Hagrid pulled all of the others students into his arms, bounding after them with Fang at his heels.
The run through the forest was dark, aside from the flashes of spellfire from the figure swooping above them. Ground exploded left and right, tree branches slashed clean-through fell in their path, green fire splashed against a tree, vaporizing its trunk.
The centaur kept its pace steadily galloping through the trees, dodging the spells that seemed aimed specifically at him and Harry.
The edge of the forest couldn't come soon enough. The imposing sight of the castle was a welcome change to the endless stretch of trees in a sea of darkness. Fang broke from the group and scrambled under the steps to Hagrid's hut for protection as the students in the giant man's arms scampered to hide in the gardens.
Ensured the students were safe, Hagrid rounded on the flying figure with his crossbow. The figure barely managed to flick its wand to deflect the bolt, giving Firenze enough time to reorient himself to return volleys from his arrows again.
The figure roared angrily, frustrated with the turn and steadily sliding back into the forest.
Then, Quirrell dipped abruptly, twisting mid-air to dodge a black tendril that narrowly missed wrapping around his neck. The tentacle contorted as the feathered shaft of one of Hagrid's bolts aimed where the wizard had just been.
The injured tendril slid back to a tall, imposing figure just at the edge of the trees. Firenze's bow switched between the two unsurely, waiting for either one to strike at them.
The flying figure hissed angrily at the intruding entity before swooshing into the darkness of the forest before another tentacle or arrow could make its mark.
With Quirrell gone, all attention returned to Slender.
The faceless entity's many tentacles returned to itself, save the one with the arrow. He let it slither in front of him before plucking the bolt right out of the 'flesh'. Black ichor dripped to the ground, the plants in the vicinity of the splatter withering immediately with wafts of caustic, foul-smelling smoke.
Slender took a moment to examine those in the clearing before slipping into the trees where his form was lost from sight.
Firenze stared at the red glow of Mars through the canopy of the forest as he slowly trotted back to his tribe. After seeing to it that Harry Potter was returned alongside the wizard-children back to their school, he spoke lowly to Hagrid afterwards.
Hagrid hadn't seen anything like the Creature before in all of the Wizard-kind's many texts and books. Firenze offered what few snippets of stories or legends he could remember along with his encounter with Harry Potter.
Hagrid had given a shaky huff and resolved to speak with their Headmaster to warn him about the Creature in their woods. Firenze had left as the man was coaxing the dog back into his hut.
He had to speak to the Elders about this... confrontation. The Forest Stalker's appearance and his aggressive pursuit should be noted. Perhaps a hunting party could drive the Creature from their lands.
The Creature showed his intentions when he almost ensnared Harry Potter, and clearly demonstrated he could be aggressive when his prey was taken away. Its attack on the Dark One could be a way of removing 'competition' or 'intruders'.
If that were the case, then his Tribe had to act fast to show that the Creature was the 'intruder' in these woods.
The Creature retreated from the edge of the clearing, likely realizing the dangers of being outnumbered. If so, returning with full party of centaurs, fully armed, could kill it, or at the very least weaken and drive it away. That plan, even the more stubborn and hot-headed of their tribe should agree on.
His thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched whine from deep within his ear that left it momentarily deaf. He stopped and clutched his ear as the ringing vanished to silence.
'My apologies.'
Firenze whirled around at the sound of a voiceless statement and came face-to-face with the Creature, itself, standing just between two tall trees. In a fluidly practiced motion, he struck his bow with an arrow and raised it threateningly at the Creature.
For all it did, The Forest Stalker didn't so much as flinch.
'I only meant to grab your attention.'
The centaur pulled the string taut as he glared at the Creature. He was rattled, the Elder's stories never mentioned the Creature 'speaking'. Mouthless and voiceless, but it was certainly the Creature communicating with some... strange magic.
"Why should I not strike you down right now?" He demanded coolly, trying to retain control of any nervous tremors in his hands. "I cannot allow something like you to take Harry Potter, or any of the wizard-children at the school."
The figure's head tilts interestedly as it 'examines' him without eyes. 'You defend the children? Despite your fear of me? That speaks highly of your intentions and character, but do not worry. I have no intentions to 'take' any children here.'
"I don't believe that," Firenze replied, bow still raised. "Our Elders have stories. Of a tall, faceless creature, with limbs like black tree branches and snakes that roams the woods, making inhabitants disappear."
'I see. I'm afraid those stories get warped with age and human... sorry, storyteller bias and error.' The Creature replied calmly. 'I do not steal away 'bad children', but I do take them from 'bad parents'. I simply find them a new home. I do not eat them or enslave them or any other atrocious speculation you may have heard.
'When I saw you carrying away Harry, er, the boy, I thought you were a threat to him. I just made sure he was safe after an encounter with that flying wizard we fought.'
"Why should we believe this? Any of this?" Firenze challenged.
'I can't give anything aside from my word. And a distinct lack of missing peoples, seeing as I've been in the area for the better part of the last six months or so.'
The centaur shifted uncomfortably. The idea that the Creature had been in the area for even longer than the Tribe knew was... unsettling.
The Creature resumed, 'I give you my word; I have no intention to harm you, the students, or anyone else in this forest... aside from the wizard who's been hiding here.' He admitted easily.
Firenze let the bow lower and the string tension drop, enough that it wasn't ready to punch a hole through the creature, but still in his hands that he could react fast enough if the tides changed.
"I will speak with the Elders about this," he promised. "We'll be keeping a very close eye on the happenings in the castle, but if you're true to your word that no harm will come to our people or the wizard-kind, then we have no argument."
'Good.' The creature nodded. 'If that is all, then I will take my leave.'
It slowly strode from the clearing, before pausing and turning back to the cautious centaur.
'Also, before I forget; Thank you.'
"For what?"
But with an echoing whisper of darkness, The Forest Stalker vanished.
AN: Happy End-of-2020. God, I hope it gets better...