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Chapter 16:

After coming out of the forbidden forest, the trio had rushed down into their common room. After getting his breath back, Harry told Blaise and Draco what had happened in the forest.

"-And then this black unicorn galloped into the clearing and chased away the creature, whatever it was,"

"Wow, Harry, that must have been a Darkhorn, or as some people call them, Fallen Unicorns. They are even more powerful than Light Unicorns, and-"

"Who cares," interrupted Draco. Blaise carried on regardless.

"They are much harder to kill. A Darkhorn is not evil, contrary to what most people think. Nor are they light. They are neutral; grey I suppose you could say. While Unicorns only tolerate innocent people, Darkhorns don't seem to differentiate between dark and light wizards. One theory is that they maintain a balance of power in the world. They will fight against any truly evil or good wizard if they feel the power is uneven. They are powerful and very dangerous. Normally though, they keep to themselves, they are much more reclusive than Light Unicorns. For many years they were thought to be mere myth. They like to live in shadow and-"

"Enough already," drawled Draco. "Harry almost got himself killed and you're babbling about some freak creature's habitat. This is not the time for a COMC lesson."

"Hey, I just thought a little background knowledge wouldn't hurt," replied Blaise offended.

"And what do you mean by saying I almost got myself killed? It wasn't my fault it attacked me," complained Harry.

"Look, if you see some strange creature attacking a Unicorn you do not, I repeat, do not run in like a brainless Gryffindor. Instead you should have evaluated the situation and then run as fast as possible in the opposite direction."

"I couldn't just let the Unicorn die!" yelled Harry. "And I didn't know the creature was there. I don't even know what it was. All I know is that it made my scar hurt like crazy."

"Harry, all I'm saying is that you should be careful," said Draco calmly. "There are rumours that Voldemort is gaining strength. He did not die that night ten years ago. I was merely a set back. A rather big set back I admit, but now he is trying to find a way to return.

"What has that got to do with me getting attacked?" asked Harry.

"Oh, I get it!" said Blaise to Draco.

"Will someone explain to me what's going on?" asked Harry, pissed off at being the only one in the dark.

"Look," said Blaise exasperatedly. "Unicorns blood will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death. The only draw back is that you will have a cursed life for having slain something pure and defenceless. Now, only someone with a back up plan would do something as stupid as that. We know that the Philosopher's Stone is at Hogwarts, and that it grants unending life, so whoever tried to kill the Unicorn probably only wanted to stay alive long enough to drink the Elixir of Life- something that will bring you back to full strength and power."

"Oh!" said Harry, cottoning on. "You think that Voldemort is the one trying to get the Stone? He was that thing in the forest?"

"Hurray," said Draco sarcastically. "The great Harry Potter finally got through his thick head what we've been trying to tell him for the past half hour."

Harry just ignored him. He was pacing up and down in front of the fire, his mind going over all the possibilities he could think of.

"So, Voldemort wants the Stone, and is waiting in the forest. Snape's a deatheater, and might be trying to kill me, or Quirrell is, or both. What if the two of them are working for Voldemort and are trying to steal the Stone for him? If that's true, we are so screwed."

"Harry, relax. We can't do anything about it now, anyway," said Blaise.

"I guess you're right," said Harry reluctantly. "We just have to keep an eye out. No one, not even Voldemort, would try anything with Dumbledore in the castle. I may not like the old man, but I've got to admit he's a powerful wizard. We just have to make sure he doesn't leave the castle.

"Glad to see you have some sense," drawled Draco.

"Enough talking already," said Blaise. "I'm hungry, let's go get something to eat. We've done enough theorising over who's out to get us."

Never ones to say no to food, Harry and Draco quickly grabbed the invisibility cloak before following Blaise out of the common room and down to the kitchens. They were almost at the entrance when they heard the sound of someone walking towards them. All three of them tried to run in opposite directions. On second thoughts, maybe that wasn't the cleverest thing to do, as the cloak slipped to the ground and Harry mentally cursed everything he could in his head. Blaise was in a panic, as footsteps approached quickly. She froze in horror, oblivious to Harry and Draco beckoning her to come back under the Invisibility Cloak. "How much I wish I was the red-headed prefect right now..." Blaise thought. Her skin felt liquidy for a second before she felt taller than before and felt her cheeks and nose become itchy. She fought the urge to scratch it.

She saw Professor McGonnagal round the bend and, before she could react, the Transfiguration nodded at her in approval.

"Good work, Percy, you are doing your job well," the strict teacher said before walking off. Blaise blinked in confusion and was speechless. She just nodded weakly back at the professor and heard Professor McGonnagal walk off. Her footsteps faded and Blaise collapsed to the floor silently. Again, she felt a tingle in her skin, and she felt normal.

Harry and Draco opened a gap in the Invisibility Cloak and she scurried under it, where they ran to the kitchens as fast and silent as possible. When they reached the kitchens, the two boys started questioning her at a furious rate while the elves prepared their food.

"Why didn't you tell us you were a Metamorphmagus?"

"I didn't know!"

"How'd you do it?"

"I don't know!"

"Why'd you do it?"

"Was that your first time?"

"Why didn't you get back under the cloak?"

"AGH! I DON'T KNOW, DAMMIT!" shouted Blaise in frustration.

"Hey, calm down, you should be celebrating, not biting our heads off," said Harry.

"Yeah, metamorphmagi are really rare. I would give anything to be one," Draco said enviously.

"I guess," said Blaise uncertainly. Now that she came to think about it, it was really cool. She could turn into anyone she wanted. Nothing was beyond her, no place closed, no secret hidden…

"Hey! Earth to Blaise!" said Harry waving his hand in front of her face.

"Oh, sorry," mumbled Blaise dreamily. "I was just thinking of all the possibilities."

"Yeah, imagine all the pranks we could play," said Harry enthusiastically. Draco nodded in agreement.

"Can't you think of anything except pranks," said Blaise crossly.

"No," said Harry, a grin on his face.

"You're impossible," huffed Blaise.

"Okay, then think of all the blackmail material we could gather. Or how easy it would be to spy on people."

"That's more like it," said Blaise, grinning and going off into her dream world again, only to be brought back to the present by Draco asking her to morph herself again. Screwing up her face in concentration, Blaise willed herself to change into Pansy Parkinson. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, nothing happened. Frowning, she tried to turn into the red haired prefect. Again, nothing happened.

"Dammit! Why won't it work," wailed Blaise in frustration.

"Maybe you just need practise. Or maybe you have to be under pressure," said Draco soothingly.

It takes a couple of months to train a Metamorphmagus's power's hissed Isis helpfully from around Harry's neck. After translating to the others, Harry said, "We don't know much about how it works. Why don't we just wait until tomorrow, and then look in the library for some information,"

After the expected protesting from Draco, they agreed, and, after eating the food brought to them by the house-elves, made their way back up to their dormitories.

The next day Harry was woken by something heavy bouncing up and down on his bed. Blearily opening his eyes he saw it was Blaise.

"Up! Now!"

Mumbling incoherently, Harry made his way to the bathroom while Blaise moved on to Draco. Coming out of the shower, Harry was just in time to see a soaking Draco sitting up in bed yelling at a guilty Blaise, who was ineffectually trying to hide a water jug behind her back. Deciding to get out of the way before hexes started to fly around the room, Harry made his way down to breakfast. Just as Harry was reaching for his fifth cup of coffee, the other two came in, Draco sprouting tentacles all over his face and Blaise sporting a sign over her head saying "Draco Malfoy is King. Blaise Zabini is the Scum of the Earth."

Luckily they were the first ones down to breakfast so they were spared the humiliation of letting the Gryffindors catch sight of them.

As soon as they finished their breakfast, Blaise dragged them to the library and they began the tedious job of looking for a book on Metamorphmagi from a choice of millions. After an hour of searching they finally found what they were looking for. It turned out that Metamorphmagi were born, not made, and their powers normally emerged around puberty. Although Isis was right about it taking a couple of months to learn control, it was a relatively easy skill to master, as the knowledge was inborn. It said that metamorphmagi could change their appearances at will, but only into human forms. There had been a couple of instances where a metamorph could grow an extra hand, arm etc. but it took many years of dedication and study so not many bothered. Metamorphmagi also had enhanced transfiguration skills. The thing that caught their attention though, was the fact that a metamorphmagus had to register themselves immediately after their first transformation. Not to do so was illegal and would be severely punished.

"Are you going to register?" asked Harry.

"Hell no!" said Blaise. "The only way I can get anything out of this is if I'm not registered. If people know I'm a Metamorphmagus, then they'll be on their guard."

"But what if someone does find out? You can go to prison for it."

"Well, no one will find out, will they?" said Blaise. "There is no real way for the ministry to control things like this. Even if someone does see me morphing, then I just have to say it was my first time."

"Guess that makes sense," said Harry, thoughtfully. "but we can't borrow any of these books, or else Madam Pince will suspect something's up. I think there might be some books in the Parseltongue library we found. There's a parsel-spell to translate books into other languages so it will be possible for you to use them."

"Great! Thanks Harry,"

"Okay, I've spent enough of my time in this bloody library. Let's move," drawled Draco.

"Yeah, I suppose we should. Potions will start soon. Come on," said Harry walking out of the library with Draco, dragging a reluctant Blaise behind them.

"Come on guys. Let me go. I want to know more about my new super powers."

"Shut up!"

"Aww, am I making Drakie-poo jealous?"

"SHUT UP!"