In this chapter, Mary will enter the Forbidden Forest.

But she won't go alone. There's a difference between brave and just being stupid.

You weren't expecting her to, right? Right? The forest is kind of a dangerous place. There are acromantulas in there. You'll know it all too well if you've read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

I don't want to deviate from canon too much, so Draco's coming too.

Otherwise the story would start getting crazy.

Though I will admit I did come up with a different reason for her entering it. I guess Mary's a bit too squeaky clean to get docked 50 points from Gryffindor.

Chapter 11: Forest of Fear

Mary checked her schedule.

Wouldn't want to forget something, would she?

She had crossed out "stick earplugs in your ears when Draco Malfoy shows up with his two friends that are inevitably going to get suspended from school."

She circled "Go with Hagrid to the forest overlooking his hut."

"Well, tonight I'm going to the Forbidden Forest. It's probably going to be dark." noted Mary to herself. Personally she wondered why innocent unicorns would want to live in a forest that was likely haunted. She imagined they would be living in a meadow. Though perhaps the unicorns didn't want people to find them.

Luckily, she happened to know the Lumos spell. It seemed she would never need a flashlight again. Though she would still probably use flashlights in Muggle Studies. Wizards wondered how Muggles could replicate the Lumos spell so effectively.

She also imagined that Hagrid would carry a lantern. No point in letting himself be ambushed. Though she wondered who would to ambush him with his big muscles.

Suddenly, Mary noticed Neville standing in the corridor.

He was frightened about something.

"What's wrong?" asked the girl.

"Vector went into the Forbidden Forest!" exclaimed Neville.

"What? He did?" questioned Mary.

That didn't bode well for him.

The poor amphibian could end up being eaten. Poor toady.

And Neville's heart would break.

"He could be anywhere in there." spoke the boy. The Forbidden Forest wasn't exactly small.

And he was too scared to enter the forest alone.

He knew it was called the Forbidden Forest for a reason. Though it wasn't because you were forbidden to talk about it. Unlike that story known as My Immortal. It struck fear in the hearts of everyone…kind of like Lord Voldemort.

Why was a forest like that so close to Hogwarts Castle anyway? It seemed like creatures could exit the forest at any time and approach the castle…and he didn't want to imagine what creatures lived there.

He could see the dark forest by looking out a window.

And it made him sweat with fear.

"I can help you look for him." assured Mary.

"Really? But it's dangerous." pointed out Neville.

Danger was not his middle name.

Though for some strange reason, J.K. Rowling never revealed his middle name.

Just like almost everyone else he knew.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I'm going to have Hagrid with me." explained the girl.

The Gryffindor boy found that reassuring. Hagrid was basically the toughest guy around.

Though he wondered if Hagrid would leave the forest with another pet. He never seemed to be in any shortage of them.

Why were his pets seemingly always apex predators?

The pure blood happened to like herbivores personally. Though even they could be dangerous.

Mary decided she would bring Hedwig, if she was brave enough to venture into the forest. Her night vision would be pretty useful.

Luckily, she was brave enough to enter it.

However, Hermione was concerned when she told her she was heading to the forest. It didn't seem like a place that first years should go. And she wasn't sure even seven-years wanted to answer it

She told Ron, and they insisted they go with her. Though Mary imagined she would be safe since Hagrid knew his way through the forest.

As it turned out, it was a full moon tonight.

It was kind of eerie.

"Are yeh ready? Wait, Mary, why did ye bring friends with ye?" asked Hagrid.

He thought she was coming with him by herself.

Though he wasn't too surprised she had brought Hedwig.

He was bringing Fang, after all.

At this point, his big furry friend had memorized the scent of unicorn blood. Not that he was a bloodhound, mind you. That's a bit too literal.

So he would help them find wounded unicorns.

"Do you mind? Ron and Hermione were worried about me…and Neville saw his pet toad enter the forest." explained Mary.

"Yer pet went into the forest? Ter be honest, I think I would head into the forest too." noted the man.

Neville found that reassuring, considering his grandmother probably wouldn't be happy with him if she found out she entered the dark forest.

Mary noticed that Draco was with Hagrid.

"Why is he here?" asked the girl. He didn't seem to be the type of person who would want to help the half giant.

If anything he would probably make fun of Hagrid for getting expelled from Hogwarts.

He would probably say something like "Why'd you get expelled from Hogwarts? Being ugly?"

And of course, his friends Crabbe and Goyle would laugh with him. Why did they always seem to be with him wherever they went? Was it because they were all Slytherins? Pureblooded?

"He decided ter TP me hut. So he has detention." explained the man.

"Figures." answered Mary.

She could still see some TP in one of those trees.

Draco was whimpering. Seemed he wasn't excited about entering the Forbidden Forest.

It was actually kind of fun to watch.

Being inside the forest made the heroes feel rather nervous.

Even Mary was sweating a bit. It wasn't unlike being inside a horror movie, though to her knowledge, there weren't any serial killers living in the woods.

Hagrid could protect her…right?

They could hear the sound of wolves howling. Seemed that they were awake around this time of night.

"They're not hunting us, are they?" asked Mary. To her knowledge, none of them had guns to defend themselves with.

Namely because they were not Muggles. Draco wouldn't want to be a Muggle anyway.

Although, the howling seemed to be off in the distance.

"How much longer do we have to be here?!" exclaimed Draco. He didn't want to be eaten by werewolves…even if nis father would sue Hagrid's butt off if that happened.

"Draco, we've only been here for five minutes." reminded Hermione.

"Fi-five minutes?" shouted the blonde boy.

He fainted.

Fang carried him away.

Mary met some acromantulas. Small acromantulas. One would be surprised as to how big they could grow…and how long they could live.

Ron seemed to be afraid of them, so he kept away.

"Got anything to eat?" asked one of the acromantulas.

"I brought some bread crumbs…" explained Mary.

It reminded her of an old fairy tale of those two kids who had a terrible mother.

Perhaps she should stay away from a house that was made of candy.

It might give her diabetes.

Oh, and she might get tossed into an oven. Can't forget that. She didn't want her title to change from "The Girl Who Lived" to the "Girl Who Burned."

Anyways, should she be feeding wild animals? It seemed fine with pigeons, but still.

Then again, spiders were kind of her friends.

"We're really hungry!" exclaimed another Acromantula.

"OK, but I hope this doesn't spoil your hunting instincts." noted the girl.

Fortunately, it seemed acromantulas never lost their hunting instincts.

Ron wondered why Mary was so comfortable around them.

Then again, perhaps Hagrid was too.

Just a theory though.

Despite the lack of sunlight, there appeared to be black flowers growing in the forest.

They matched the trees.

"You think the trees are bewitched?" asked Ron.

"Are you expecting them to come to life and attack?" questioned Hermione.

She happened to know a lumberjack, so she could threaten them with that if they tried.

Luckily, they did not come to life and attack.

Hagrid decided he was going to split them up.

"Are you sure? We're kind of in a dark, scary forest." noted Mary.

She wasn't sure that was such a good idea.

"It's only 'til we find another unicorn." explained Hagrid.

Mary went with Neville and Ron with Hermione.

Hagrid went with Fang, who had returned to him.

Neville found Vector swimming in a pond.

"There you are! You really worried me!" exclaimed the boy.

Mary could tell he was apologizing.

Vector had seen a strange man entering the forest…and well, he got curious.

He was mumbling about when his suffering would end.

Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione found a wounded unicorn.

"Thank goodness this unicorn is still alive." remarked the girl.

She felt bad that they were dying.

On the other hand, seeing the sight of blood made Ron feel sick.

Luckily, Hagrid had a potion that could get her patched up.

He caught early wind that an attacked unicorn might still be alive.

"I wonder who that strange man was." remarked Mary.

"Is that him?!" exclaimed Neville.

He witnessed a man running away.

Mary saw him too.

He was carrying a vial of unicorn's blood.

No doubt he was responsible for the recent attacks.

The only problem was that they did not know who he was.

Was it Snape?

Suddenly, Mary's head began to spin.

"Why am I so dizzy?" asked the girl.

She hadn't felt this way since she chased Draco on a broomstick.

Unfortunately, Mary felt so lightheaded that she collapsed on the ground.

"Mary!" exclaimed Neville.

When she woke up, she was in Hagrid's hut.

"Ye alright?" asked Hagrid.

They had found what they were looking for, so he figured it was time for them to leave the Forbidden Forest.

Luckily, Mary was unhurt, so there was no need to visit Madam Pomfrey. Though it might be best to visit her anyway to find out what had caused her head to spin.

At this point, the sun was up.

"Yeah. I don't know why my head spun like that." noted Mary.

"I was worried when that happened to you." remarked Neville.

He and Mary always seemed to look out for one another.

Perhaps that was why they were in the same house.

"This centaur here picked yeh up and took yeh out of the forest." explained Hagrid.

Which was weird, given that centaurs didn't usually like humans. One of the members of the Ministry of Magic seemed out to get them. How they would like to teach her a lesson.

Why was Mary so supernaturally lucky?

His name was Firenze.

"My friends aren't going to be happy with me, are they?" thought the centaur to himself.

He was starting to know how the little mermaid felt.

"I owe you one." remarked Mary.

She noticed Draco was still unconscious.

He was sucking his thumb.

Mary let out a giggle.

She could blackmail him with this knowledge…but that didn't seem like something a Gryffindor would do.

Just in case, she would keep that in mind in case he found something about her that was embarrassing.

"We managed to find a unicorn that was still alive." said Ron.

"Really? Is it doing OK?" asked Mary.

"Yes, though we're not sure when it will fully recover." explained Hermione.

Mary was fascinated by the creature, to say the very least.

Being pierced by its horn wouldn't be fun though. Unicorns were innocent but that didn't mean that they were defenseless.

Unfortunately, there was some bad news when they got back to Hogwarts.

Slytherin had creamed Ravenclaw in a game of Quidditch. The Ravenclaws were upset because the Slytherins had later written with graffiti "Ravenclaws are morons!" afterwards outside their tower.

They had won so many points that Gryffindor wouldn't be able to claim the house cup from them.

The amount of emeralds that had entered their hourglass was very scary for everyone who wasn't part of their serpentine house.

And yes, the house points were measured through hourglasses. It was pretty useful to keep track of them.

Why did they keep on winning? At this rate, the Slytherins were going to run out of space on their trophy shelf.

"Well, at least we tried." remarked Mary.

Though perhaps they would win the house cup…by some miracle.

On the lighter side of things, they got some house points for their bravery.

So perhaps they weren't going to get last place.

Hagrid had a flashback to when he decided to look in the Mirror of Erised.

"Yeh! I finally lost weight! I knew I could do it!" exclaimed Hagrid, raising his arms in the air.

Maybe now he could ride a magic bicycle. He did like the motorcycle though.

"Hagrid, that's a magic mirror." explained Dumbledore, who walked into the room.

"Aww…" pouted Rubeus.

Seemed some things were too good to be true.

Anyways, on a more serious note, he wondered who would want to drink unicorn blood.

Not only did it taste awful, bad things happened to people who drank it. It served them right for wounding and killing innocent creatures, in his opinion.

He took one sip (he had mistaken it for wine) and someone threw a rock at his house, breaking a window.

Hagrid never figured out who it was, but he imagined it was one of the Slytherins.

He wondered why anybody would ever use it to save their own life.

Suddenly, he heard knocking on his door.

Hagrid decided to answer it.

It was the same man who had been attacking the unicorns. Only he was wearing a trenchcoat.

"I've got something that might interest ya." remarked the disguised man.

He pulled out a dragon egg from his trenchcoat.

Hagrid's eyes widened in shock.

Who could be attacking all these poor unicorns?

In the next chapter, Hagrid will have some bad news for our heroes.

Seems he shouldn't have accepted a bribe.