Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter…Although I'd like to.
Chapter 11-The Forbidden Revelation
Harry felt something shake him as he slowly started to open his eyes. At first everything was a complete blur, but after a moment went by, the picture started to come together. As soon as he was able to see clearly though, he started wishing that he were still unconscious; for standing over him was Professor McGonagall with the thinnest mouth he'd seen so far.
Professor McGonagall was the transfiguration teacher, who always wore a stern look and had her hair in a bun. The first sight of her immediately gave all students the idea that she was definitely someone who they shouldn't cross.
"Are you awake yet!" She grunted as she looked down at Harry.
"I think so," Harry responded as he sat up and started rubbing the back of his head.
"You do realize that you missed every single class today," She said as her mouth started getting thinner.
"Sorry." Harry said in a low voice.
"Come with me," Professor McGonagall said as she turned around and started to head towards the castle.
Harry immediately got up, picked up his firebolt and the book that he had found at the station, and sprinted after Professor McGonagall. By the time he caught up to her Harry was starting to become a little more nervous. He had crossed many boundaries and broken many school rules before. He was even threatened with expulsion by Dumbledore once; and Dumbledore had been the kindest and most understanding person Harry had met.
As soon as he entered the castle Harry noticed that there were no students walking around the hall nor were there any teachers, or prefects, or even ghosts for that matter.
"Excuse me," Harry called out as he continued to sprint after her. "Where is everybody? I can't seem to find any of the students?"
"Everyone is having dinner in the great hall." Professor McGonagall answered in a stern voice, which told Harry that he shouldn't ask her anymore questions for now.
However even if Harry wanted to, he couldn't. He was too busy recovering from shock. 'It's dinner already. Have I really slept that long?' Harry thought to himself. 'Of course I did. I did miss all of my classes after all.'
Harry looked up and saw that Professor McGonagall was leading him inside her office. 'She's not going to take me to Dumbledore's office?' Harry thought as he walked in after her.
As soon as he walked in, Professor McGonagall turned to him and started glaring him straight in the eye. After a second she stretched out her hand and pointed to a seat near her desk and quietly said, "sit."
Harry nervously sat down and started to look at the enraged teacher.
She walked around her desk not taking her eyes away from Harry's. She quietly sat down, opened a drawer, took something out and put it on the table in front of Harry.
There was a minute of silence in the room, as Harry started to get even more nervous. "Um," Harry started breaking the silence. "What exactly is that you put on the table professor?"
"Why don't you look down and find out." Professor McGonagall answered in the same stern voice. "Or have you forgotten how? Just like you had forgotten how to use a train, and like how you have forgotten how to go to class."
Harry was a little afraid to take his face away from professor McGonagall's, but nevertheless he looked down and realized that what she put down was something small and silvery with the letter "P" on it. Harry looked back up at professor McGonagall. "Is that a prefect's badge?" He asked, looking completely confused.
"My, how very perceptive you are." She answered with sarcasm in her voice. "Yes, it is." She said after another moment of silence. "And it's yours." She added.
Harry was completely stunned. Not only had he avoided getting expelled, but he was also made a prefect of the school. Harry opened his mouth to say 'thank you', but the only things that came out were grunts and gasps.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Professor McGonagall said, getting impatient. "Take it already, so we can move on."
Harry took the badge looked down at it disbelievingly, looked back up towards Professor McGonagall, opened his mouth and said, "Why?"
Professor Mdgonagall's eyebrow rose for a second, and went back down almost as fast. "Why not?" She calmly said. "You did pretty well in your classes, except for potions that is. You did win the Triwizards Tournament, a feat that not many fourth years can accomplish. And I'm starting to believe that the only way for you to obey the rules, is by having you enforce the rules."
"But I thought that Hermione was the new Gryffindor prefect?" Harry said as he looked down at his badge again.
"She is." Professor McGonagall stated. "And so are you. I can have as many prefects as I want. Or as few." She ended with a leer.
"Well, thank you very much professor." Harry said. With that Harry got up turned around and headed towards the door.
"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall called, just as Harry was a few feet from the door.
Harry turned around and saw her pointing at the chair that Harry had just got up from. "Sit", she said once again, in the same quiet voice.
Harry slowly walked over to the seat and sat down. 'I knew there was going to be more.' He thought to himself.
"About that request that you made, to join professor Vector's arithmancy class." She started giving Harry the same leer she had been giving him for the last couple of minutes. "As you know there is no room for you in the beginner's class. You'll be forced to take the intermediate class. Being that you're so far behind, I am going to assign Miss Granger as your tutor." Harry's face turned completely white with shock. "She'll help you catch up so as you won't fail the class…"
"Um, professor," Harry interrupted. "Can't you get me another tutor? Someone else? Anyone else?"
Professor McGonagall looked at him in an odd way and said, "Of course not. Miss Granger is the best student in professor Vector's class. She's probably the only one capable of such a feat anyway." Professor McGonagall stopped for a second, took a deep breath and continued. "I, for one thought that your request was completely absurd, and would never have granted it myself. It was Professor Dumbledore who insisted on letting you join the class. I still don't know why he did it though."
Harry just sighed and nodded. He was still upset about what had happened between him and Hermione, and was scared to see her again. He wondered if she would forgive him for what had happened. But even if she did it wouldn't matter. Things wouldn't just go back to the way they were before. Harry knew that he and Hermione probably wouldn't be as close as they were before, not after what he had done.
"Now, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said snapping him out of his thoughts. "I would like to talk to you about your choice in transportation to the school." Harry gulped. "What made you think that you couldn't take the train here?"
Harry sighed and started to go into what had happened to him while he was at the train station. As he was telling her about what had happened, her eyebrows started to rise in concern. "And I didn't have Hedwig or any money with me, and all of my stuff was on the train, I really had no other choice professor." Harry finished.
Professor McGonagall looked down into Harry's hand and asked him if the book that he was holding was the dark arts book that he told her about.
"Yes professor," he answered as he held the book in front of professor McGonagall, so she could get a good look at it.
Professor McGonagall took the book and opened it to a random page. She looked around the page and turned to a different one. She immediately closed the book and started glaring towards Harry. "Is this some kind of joke Potter?!" She snapped.
"What do you mean professor?" Harry asked looking confused.
Professor McGonagall opened the book and put it right in front of Harry's face. As soon as Harry looked at it he became even more confused, because the pages were all completely blank.
"But I saw it, I saw the interious curse, and the venocuous curse in there," Harry said, more to himself that to professor McGonagall. "And I also saw the Avada Kedavra curse in there."
Professor McGonagall took out her wand and pointed at the book. She tried about three different revealing spells, but the pages still remained blank.
She looked back at Harry, her mouth thinning once again. "If this is your idea of a joke Mr. Potter, I can assure you that it is not a funny one." She said in a very low voice.
Harry was completely dumbfounded by now. "But I, I saw it!" Harry said a little more loudly than he had meant to. "It also had the…"
"That is enough Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall interrupted. "I shall take this book to the headmaster, and while I'm at it I'll also place your broom back where it belongs. Because you are going to be serving your first detention tonight."
"First?" Harry looked at her quizzically.
"That's right, the first of five detentions…"
"FIVE!" Harry yelled out accidentally.
"And a Saturday detention as well." Professor McGonagall added.
Harry's mouth opened to say something, but before any words could come out, professor McGonagall said, "And you should be happy that's all you're getting!"
She opened her drawer and took out a parchment and started writing something on it. After she was finished she handed Harry the parchment. "Your first detention will be with professor Hagrid in the forbidden forest."
Harry's eyes immediately grew wide. "The forbidden forest?" He said with disbelief.
"That's right." Professor McGonagall nodded. "After you are finished with your detention, you will have the professor sign that parchment. And I warn you if you don't do as you are told the parchment will shine red, and I will know that you either forged the signature, or that professor Hagrid had let you off the hook. I already know that you're good friends with him, and that would be just like him to do something like that."
Harry looked down at the parchment and then back up towards professor McGonagall, who had magically made a plate with sandwiches and a goblet of pumpkin juice appear on her desk. "Now eat up, and as soon as you are finished, you are to go straight down towards professor Hagrid's hut and wait for him there. I have to return to the great hall." With that she got up, took Harry's book and firebolt and walked towards the door. Before she exited she looked back towards Harry and said, "I know when we warned you before, you refused to listen to us, so I'm only going to say that this had better be the last time I have to tell you this: No MORE DETECTIVE WORK HERE, understand? Times are more dangerous now than they have ever been before. Just stay out of trouble this year. I mean it!"
Harry nodded, and said, "Yes professor." With that professor McGonagall left the room.
As soon as she left Harry leaned back in his chair and gave a sigh of relief. After what had happened, Harry was sure that he'd be expelled.
'I wonder why the book was completely blank anyway?' Harry thought to himself. 'Maybe I did something to it while I was waiving it around?'
Harry looked at the sandwiches with longing in his eyes. It had been over two days since he ate anything. 'Oh well,' he thought. 'I'm sure that Dumbledore will get to the bottom of this. And he'll probably figure out who brought it to Hogwarts in the first place.'
With that, Harry put his prefect's badge in his pocket, and reached for a turkey sandwich.
After two sandwiches and a few goblets of pumpkin juice, Harry grabbed the parchment that professor McGonagall gave him and headed off towards Hagrid's hut. As he walked through the hallway towards the exit he once again noticed that there was no one around the halls. 'Odd,' he thought. 'There should at least be some ghosts flying around?'
"Hello," said a voice from out of nowhere.
Harry looked around and didn't see anyone around. "Who's out there?" Harry called out. "Is anyone here?"
Just then a ghost of a girl with glasses appeared in front of Harry. "Hello Harry." The ghost said in a melancholy voice.
"Hi Myrtle." Harry said, with a hint of annoyance. "Nice to see you."
"You're just saying that." Myrtle snapped. "You never even visited me after your second year. Oh let's all ignore ugly, four-eyed Myrtle. Just because she's dead means she doesn't care for visitors!" She ended with tears beginning to foam in her eyes.
"Myrtle, do you know where all the other ghosts are?" Harry asked.
"They're having a meeting, and once again they're leaving me out." Myrtle sobbed, as more tears began to appear.
"What kind of a meeting is it? Does it have something to do with the dark lord?" Harry asked with anxiety in his voice.
"No, sir Nicholas was rejected from the headless hunt again. He became so miserable, that the other ghosts decided to cheer him up, by throwing him a party! They're making preparations for his party right now!" By now Myrtle's eyes began to rain across the hall. "But they never throw a party for Myrtle whenever she's miserable!"
"That's why you're walking around the halls?" Harry asked.
"Uh huh," She managed to say between sobs. "I wanted to go back to my toilet, but it's been sealed off with magic this year."
"Why?"
"I don't know, but now there's nowhere for me to go."
"Well, it's been nice talking to you Myrtle, but I have to go to Detention now." Harry said. With that he turned on his heal and walked off swiftly.
"Oh sure, run away from Myrtle!" She yelled after him. "Just because she's not a pretty picture to look at, means you can't stand around her!"
Harry just rolled his eyes and kept going. 'Honestly, she complains about every little thing. She doesn't know what it's like to have real problems.' He walked fast until he was out of range of Myrtle's crying. When he saw that he was, he slowed down and calmly headed towards the front door.
A few minutes later, Harry arrived at Hagrid's cabin. Harry figured that Hagrid was still at dinner, but decided to knock on his door just I case. As soon as he knocked, he heard a sound of a dog running towards the door, and of a man grunting, "Back Fang, back!"
"Hagrid's home?" Harry whispered to himself, just as the door flew open, and a man with a crossbow emerged on the other side.
"Who is it?!" Hagrid yelled as he started looking around.
"Down here." Harry said.
Hagrid looked down, and as soon as he saw it was Harry, he put down the crossbow, and wiped his brow in relief. "Oh Harry," he said. "Thank goodness it's jus' yeh."
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"Nothing." Hagrid said very quickly. "Why would yeh think that anything's wrong?"
Harry was about to answer, but thought better of it. "I'm supposed to serve detention with you tonight."
"Yeh are?" Hagrid looked at Harry suspiciously. "Since when?"
"Since a few minutes ago." Harry took out the parchment and handed it to Hagrid. "You're supposed to sign it after I'm finished."
Hagrid read the parchment carefully, looked down at Harry and said, "Okay wait out here, I'll be out in a sec." Hagrid went back into his hut, while Harry just sat down on the steps.
'Hagrid is really acting weird,' Harry thought. 'I wonder what's wrong?' Harry looked back towards Hagrid's hut, turned around and just shrugged it off. 'Maybe I'll find out some other time.'
A few minutes later Hagrid came out of his hut carrying four small cages in his hands. "Billywigs," He said as soon as he saw Harry looking at him.
Harry just looked at him in a confused manner.
"Yeh and I are going to find us some billywigs in that there fores'. Four to be exact." Hagrid walked down the stairs past Harry, turned around and said. "Do yeh know wha' a billywig is?"
Harry nodded. "They're small creature that fly by spinning around. They have huge stingers, and if a person gets stung, he'll end up levitating, sometimes uncontrollably."
"Too righ'," Hagrid said. "These billywigs are fer yer class tomorrow. I'm a little behind in my work. I guess professor McGonagall, though' I could use some more help or someat."
'But Hagrid's never behind when it comes to magical creatures,' Harry thought to himself. 'Something's wrong.'
"Well, we'd better get going Harry, those buggers are bloody hard to find, specially at night." Hagrid turned around and started walking towards the forest. As soon as Harry saw that Hagrid was leaving, he jumped off the step and sprinted after Hagrid.
As soon as Harry had entered the forbidden forest a chill rose up his spine. He had only been in the forest twice before, and each time he came in contact with a life threatening experience. The first time Voldemort himself tried to kill him. Lucky for Harry, Firenze, a centaur saved his life. The second time a colony of giant spiders wanted to eat him and Ron. They were both saved by Mr. Weasley's car that time. Both of those events were more than enough to make Harry want to stay away from that forest forever; but here he was, once again, inside the forest looking for little creatures that were hard enough to capture during the daytime, at night.
The forest was darker than usual that night. The trees completely blocked out the sky, and there were many frightening sounds coming from each and every direction. Whenever Harry looked at a bush nearby, he could swear that he saw it moving. Maybe it was just paranoia, but considering what Harry had been through before, no one could really blame him.
Harry and Hagrid explored the forest for over three hours without so much as a sign of a billywig. Hagrid was about to give up looking, when he heard a buzzing in the bushes. "Did yeh hear that Harry?" Hagrid whispered. "I think we've found one." Hagrid got up and started to run in the direction the sound was coming from.
Harry ran after him trying his best to keep up. That was until he tripped over a branch, and fell flat on his face. Harry got up, wiped his face of any dirt on it and began looking around the forest for any sign of Hagrid. When he didn't see anything, Harry decided to keep going straight in the direction that he was running towards, before he tripped.
Harry walked for about ten minutes, and couldn't even find a trace of Hagrid. Harry was starting to become a little frightened, standing in the middle of the forest all alone. He took out his wand and was about to shoot red sparks in the air, hoping that Hagrid would see them and come and find Harry.
But before he was able to shoot them out he heard a voice; a voice coming from inside of his head. 'Young one,' the voice said. 'Come to me, follow the light.'
Harry looked around the forest to try to see what was making that noise, but didn't see anything. After searching for a few minutes, Harry gave up and was about to try shooting sparks again, when he heard the same voice in his head. 'Follow the light.' The voice said.
"What light!" Harry yelled out to his surroundings.
Once again Harry began to look around, and this time he did see something. It was a small white light coming from behind a bush. Harry didn't understand why, but for some reason he felt that he should trust that voice and follow the little bit of light that he saw.
Harry immediately broke into a sprint and ran through the bushes following the path that the light made out. The farther he ran the more clearly he could see the light. After a few minutes he finally arrived to the originator of the light. And it was: a Unicorn.
Harry was amazed at the site that he saw. The Unicorn's body was white as snow, its horn was long and pointy, and its entire body glowed a brilliant white light that somehow didn't hurt Harry's eyes at all.
'Welcome young one.' It was the voice again, where was it coming from?
The unicorn walked closer towards Harry. It looked him straight in the eyes. 'I trust that you have figures out that it is I who is communicating with you in your mind.'
Harry's eyes went completely wide when he heard this. 'Can you hear me,' thought Harry.
'Yes,' the unicorn responded in Harry's mind.
'I didn't know that a unicorn could use telepathy?'
'We can't.' The unicorn stated.
'Then how are you communicating with me now?'
'Us unicorns have a special gift, that allows us to bond with one other creature on the planet. Just one, no more than that.'
'And you chose to bond with me?'
'Make no mistake.' The unicorn thought angrily. 'I did not do this for your benefit. I did it for the planet.'
'What do you mean?' Harry asked in his mind.
'I need your help, Harry Potter.'
'Why?'
'I think that you already know why.'
'Voldemort!' Harry thought angrily.
'A great darkness is about to befall this planet, and you might be the trigger. Or you may be the only one who can stop this evil. I really don't know. That is why I need you.'
Harry's eyes widened as he head this. 'What kind of evil? Is it Voldemort?' He asked.
'I think so.' The unicorn responded. 'I wouldn't put anything past humans.'
Harry began to frown a bit. 'What do you mean?'
'I mean exactly what I just thought. Humans are a plague on this planet. You all believe that you are superior beings, when in reality you are all nothing but hairless apes. You care for nothing, or no one but yourselves.'
'That's not true!' Harry exclaimed. 'There are many humans who care about other creatures and the environment.'
'Really? Do you really think that's true? You humans capture us unicorns, draw out our blood, pluck out our hairs, and cut off our precious horns. You take other animals and slaughter them, and use their insides for you twisted amusement. You fight with each other, and in the meantime destroy precious life giving rainforests. To you the rainforests are nothing but a bunch of trees, but to us, they're home. How can you justify any of these actions?'
Harry just stood there stunned for a moment. 'Well,' Harry thought for a moment. 'You unicorns don't seem to mind girls as much as you do the boys, do you?'
'We hate the females, as much as we hate the males; but the females are more gentle with us, while almost all males are barbarians. The fact is, when I first made contact with you, half of me hoped that you would drown so that I wouldn't have to have shared my gift with you.'
Harry's expression immediately went from stunned to furious. 'THAT WAS YOU!'
'Yes. Usually when we share our gift with someone that we love, they experience a warm almost sensational feeling; but when we share it with someone we despise, unusual side effects take place.'
'I COULD HAVE DIED YESTERDAY, AND YOU GOT ME IN A LOT OF TROUBLE!' Harry was getting more and more furious with every passing second. He was two words away, from blasting that unicorn into oblivion.
'Let's just end it here,' the unicorn said in Harry's mind. 'We do not have time for idle banter. I want you to meet me on October 31st. While everyone else is having dinner, you sneak out and head towards the forest, I will await you at the entrance.'
Harry just looked at him disbelievingly. 'You insulted my species, you called me a barbarian, you almost killed me, and now you want me to do something for you; you have a nice night, I have a detention to finish up.' Harry turned around and started walking away from the unicorn.
'If you don't help the world is going to be destroyed!' the unicorn called out after him.
'Well, at least there will be less humans to make your life miserable.' Harry shot back.
'Are you really going to let petty differences between us cloud your judgment?'
Harry just continued walking not listening to anything the unicorn was telling him.
The unicorn started running after him. 'So many will suffer and it will all be your fault!' the unicorn called out.
At that Harry froze. His wand fell out of his hand as he started breathing hoarsely. His eyes went wide as he started clutching his head. "NO!" He yelled out. "STOP IT… PLEASE!!!" Harry immediately fell to his knees, as his hoarse breathing got worse. "PLEASE…LEAVE ME ALONE…I…DIDN'T MEAN…FOR ANY…OF THIS TO…HAPPEN!!!" Harry started shaking his head back and forth, as the unicorn came closer to him. "STOOOOOOOOP!!!" Harry yelled out at the top of his lungs, and before the unicorn could even ask him what was wrong, Harry fainted.
A/N: So did you like it, did you hate-either way please let me know.
