Hey guys. Here's chapter twelve. A lot will be revealed in chapter thirteen cuz I like number 13 hehe. And yeah, I'm thinking of getting a nose piercing. Just a small nose screw/stud cuz its more classy that way. What do you think? I know I'm a guy and guys don't wear screw/studs but what the hell. It doesn't matter in this day and age so what do you guys think?

Read and Review please. I know a lot of you read but don't review. Please do. I'd love to hear from all of you.

CHAPTER TWELVE

FOLLOWING THE UNICORN'S BLOOD

Harry, Ron, and Hermione talked among themselves by the time the clock struck 12 midnight, ensuring that they won't be overheard by the other Gryffindors, who were by now asleep. Hermione just extracted from Peeves the poltergeist the whereabouts of Regulus Black, their hunch on who this R.A.B. who purged Hogwarts of boggarts and stole the Horcrux locket and left it in Grimmauld Place was.

"Peeves told me he is in the Forbidden Forest," whispered Hermione as Ron tended to the dying fire by the fireplace. "I don't know how he is surviving in there but that was where Hedwig sent the piece of scrap we sent out."

"So how do we meet him?" asked Harry, sitting by the red couches and flipping through a copy of Witch Weekly. "Do we just go into the forest, then?"

"Go meet him?" said Ron as if doing so was incredibly stupid. "Why would you do that? He could be a maniac killer or something."

"Ron, not the time to joke around," said Hermione sternly. "I guess we can ask Hagrid to lead us through the forest. He knows the place well."

"That we can't do," said Harry, now letting go of the magazine he was holding and shifting in his seat. "Hagrid doesn't know anything about this. If he gets to know about this, he'll try and stop us from destroying the Horcruxes ourselves. You guys know Hagrid. He's very worrisome. I say we go there ourselves."

"I guess so," said Hermione with a slight unsure tone in her voice. "Harry's right Ron, we need to do this ourselves."

Ron just looked at them, fear etched in his face. He gulped nervously and sat down beside Harry. Just as they were about to go to bed, they heard sounds coming from a corner if the room. They stood up and started to investigate the source of the sound.

"Where is that coming from?" whispered Harry. "Could that be Regulus sneaking in or something?"

"Shh!" hissed Hermione. "If it is him, he might know we are looking for him so quiet!"

Ron just paced silently, too nervous to speak. He clutched on to Hermione's back robe and walked behind her. Suddenly, everything went dark as the fire from the fireplace died. Instantly, a cold draft of air blew into them, sending them chills.

Harry placed her right hand in his pocket, clutching his wand in case he needed it. He walked in front of Hermione and Ron and crept towards the short corridor leading to the portrait hole going outside the Common Room. The sound was getting louder and louder as they progressed walking. Finally, they knew it was very near them as the sound was louder.

Finally, Harry pulled out his wand and looked at the walls of the corridor where they stood. The walls were lined with portraits and red curtains, fluttering by. The sound seemed to be coming from behind the curtains. He went near the curtain nearest him and held the fabric, ready to pull it to the side. He clutched his wand tightly and finally, his left hand tugged the curtain, revealing not Regulus but Ginny… and a boy.

Not realizing that they've been spotted, Ginny's lips were all over this new boy's face. This boy was new, Harry could tell, and looked okay. He has a nice head of well-maintained black hair, his eyes were blue, and his body was chiseled, as seen in the tank-top he was wearing. He held Ginny's back as he kissed Ginny, whose hands were on the boy's muscular chest.

"Hey, Ginny, doesn't it seem colder to you?" asked the boy as Ginny kissed his neck and started to clutch the ends of his tank-top, ready to pull it off his head.

"No…" said Ginny breathily as her hands started to pull out the boy's shirt. "Why… Don't you feel hot?"

As Ginny pressed her head against the boy's bare chest, the boy saw that three seventh years were staring at them. His eyes suddenly widened as he saw the red headed one among the three clutching a wand. He figured this must be Ginny's brother.

Suddenly, Ron started to jerk his hand while clutching his wand. With excellent precision, he successfully cast a hot air charm (Order of the Phoenix 21), causing concentrated steam to burn the boy's bare chest. Ginny started to notice the presence of Harry, Hermione, and Ron then started to yell.

"Stop it, Ron!" screamed Ginny. "You're hurting Donny!"

"Donny! DONNY!" said Ron progressively louder as he held his wand, thoroughly steaming the boy's chest.

"Ouch! Hot!" said the boy as his bare chest was being burnt by the steam. "Sorry! Please stop!"

"What were you doing with my sister!" said Ron as he finally pocketed his wand. "Who told you that you could do that!"

"I did!" snapped Ginny, her face tightening with annoyance. "And so what? What we were doing was just normal. Remember when you were snogging all day all night last year?"

"You call that snogging!" retorted Ron. "You were taking of his clothes for god's sake! Next thing I know you're taking yours off as well."

"I wasn't planning on doing that!" said Ginny as he held the boy's hand. She then pulled him towards her and walked together away. "Come now Donny Donovan. Just ignore my brother. Just because he's not all beefed up and sexy like you…"

Hermione and Harry, who were silent for the duration of the fight, finally spoke.

"So, I guess its time for bed?" said Hermione, trying to end their conversation because everything was becoming too awkward to bear since seeing Ginny trying to strip Donovan.

"Yeah…" said Harry. "Good night."

They parted as they went up to their dormitories and soon, slept the night away.

The next day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione found themselves eating a plate of toast and a glass of Oreo and milk smoothie down in the Great Hall. The owls were now fluttering by the ceiling as they searched for their owners to deliver mail and the professors, all in their own chairs, ate their breakfast as well.

"So, we do it tonight," whispered Hermione, hiding her face in today's copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Do what?" asked Ron.

Hermione looked above the newspaper in her hand and said "We go to the Forbidden Forest tonight."

"Okay," whispered Harry. "We just need to pretend that we need to go outside because a professor wanted us to do some errand or something. Then, we'll sneak into the forest."

The day went by slowly but surely. By the time nighttime came, Harry, Hermione, and Ron just came from the Astronomy Tower and were now in the Great Hall, eating dinner.

"Ready for this?" asked Harry.

"Yeah," answered Hermione, who looked determined to see Regulus. "Ready as we'll ever be, right Ron?"

Ron on the other hand, did not touch his food due to nerves. This was well shown as he said "Guys, I think I'm coming down with something… Can you guys go ahead to the forest without me?"

"Oh Ron!" whispered Hermione. "This is no time to chicken out. You've got the guts to watch your sister and some guy snog for minutes and now you're telling me you can't stomach going to the Forbidden Forest?"

"But that was different!" answered Ron.

"Oh shush!" said Harry, breaking up the argument. "We can't be heard, guys. No one should know that were going out of the school grounds."

Dinner ended and Harry and his friends still sat on their table, waiting for the Great Hall to empty of students. At last, only two students remained and in a minute, those two left as well. Harry started to walk out of the Great Hall and into the Entrance Hall with Hermione and Ron. They stepped towards and out the giant doors and closed it behind them. Once outside, they felt the night breeze tingling their skin. They started to trod across the grassy field and walked far of Hagrid's Hut to avoid him seeing them. They encircled through the Black Lake to avoid Hagrid's Hut and in twenty minutes, were in the edge of the forest.

"Wands out," said Harry as he clutched his wand. "Ready? Lumos"

Light came out of the wand tip of Harry as he set foot into the forest, followed by Hermione and Ron whose wands were also emitting light. The forest at night was as dark as ever. Slight mist was surrounding them and crunching was constantly heard as they stepped on twigs. The trees were fairly apart from each other as they walked on, occasionally hearing a howl or buzz from the darkness.

Deeper into the forest, the trees became bigger and more close to each other. They started to get scratched by the many thorns and shrubs growing on the ground. The darkness was more impenetrable here as they squinted their eyes in attempts of better vision. Soon, they had to squeeze through trees due to the narrow walking space. Crickets were buzzing everywhere and they now had more prominent scratches on their unrobed arms. Some of the edges of their robes were now being frayed and on occasion, they would step on an insect, easily killing it.

Rain started to patter as they went deeper and deeper. They raised their wands higher to lift the light but still, vision was poor.

"We're going nowhere!" said Ron finally. "Let's pull back."

"No Ron!" said Hermione. "We need to move forward. We've gone through this far already."

"Hermione's right, Ron," said Harry as he squeezed through two tree trunks. "We need to move forward."

"But we are going nowhere!" answered Ron. "It's not like we know exactly which part of the forest Regulus is!"

Suddenly, the three fell silent. They heard something fall on the ground. The three of them held each others hands and huddled together, casting their light on all directions.

"What was that?" asked Ron, obviously petrified.

"Something big," said Harry. "It must've fallen on the ground."

They stuck close together as they walked a bit more. Suddenly, against the light of their wands, they saw a familiar looking fluid on the ground. The fluid looked shimmered white, almost silver-like. It was as though the liquid was made of millions of crystals. The viscous liquid was on the grass, flowing thinly through.

"I know this!" exclaimed Hermione. "Its unicorn's blood."

"Maybe that's what caused the sound," concluded Harry. "A unicorn might have collapsed and died near here."

"But what killed it?" asked Ron. "We better pull back before it kills us, too."

The three of them walked more, following the trail of blood on the floor. Their light was enough to let the blood shimmer, enabling them to see it easily against the blackness of the forest. Finally, they reached the source of the blood.

A unicorn was lying on its side. Its white body was beautiful, not to mention it twisted, perfectly coned horn. Its mane and tail were white blemished with gold and its eyes, open and dead, were in the purest blue. Beside it, sucking its blood, was a hooded man.

Harry and his friends fell silent, transfixed. They stared at this heinous act, drinking unicorn's blood. They knew only vile and evil wizards are willing to drink this blood for good ones would rather die than get the benefits of this precious blood.

Suddenly, the hooded man raised its head and saw the three students staring at him. He stood up quickly and started to step over the dead unicorn. He was walking towards them. Panic started to rise in the three Gryffindor's bodies as the man drew nearer.

"We need to get out of here!" said Ron. "Let's pull back now!"

"But what about Regulus?" asked Hermione who was clearly frightened.

"Regulus? You are looking for Regulus Arcturus Black" suddenly said the hooded man as he stepped nearer. "Why are you three looking for me?"

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE