Chapter 12
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Even if Rebekah loved learning, she hated exams. The exams for the First Years would begin in the upcoming weeks, so Rebekah and her friends would be stuck in the library or in their dorms. Some of the older years made practise exams for them to try and answer.
Rebekah volunteered to get an array of books from the library for the study group the older Slytherins forced them to make. Her Invisibility Cloak sat in her endless pouch. She wanted to get some light reading from the Restricted Area. On her way back, Rebekah heard whimpers from a classroom ahead of her.
Even the moment before she saw anyone, a shooting pain went from the base of her throat, through her shoulder and down her bicep. Her hand flew to her shoulder, she hissed slowly and piled the pressure down on it. It dulled the pain for just a moment.
Then he appeared, resulting in agony.
Quirrell's voice echoed quietly. "No. No. Nononono. Not again, please!" He sobbed pitifully as he came rushing out. Pale and trembling with fear and horror, he straightened his turban. Rebekah caught the tiniest of glimpses of his head, pale, bald and slightly bumpy-Like a face.
But Rebekah knew that was impossible, wasn't it? Or at least she hoped it was.
He tumbled away, Quirrell hadn't even noticed her. Waiting until Quirrell's footsteps disappeared, Rebekah peered into the classroom. Empty but with a door creaked open at the other end.
Rebekah furrowed her eyes in confusion but thought nothing of it, simply storing that strange occurance away in her mind. She huddled back to the classroom in the dungeons, piling the books from the library out of her endless pouch and onto the table.
"Rebekah, are you ok?" Daphne dipped her quil into the black ink.
"You look a little pale," Draco scrunched his face up. "What happened?"
Rebekah lifted her head slowly, her neck aching from the pain. "Nothing. Do I look that ill? I might go to the Infirmary then."
"Yeah, you should," Gemma Farley was the Slytherin that was supervising the group that day, her and Crumb. "Do you want to take her, or should I?"
"I've got it, Farley," He said, pocketing his wand into his sleeved shirt. "I'll make sure she gets there and then I'll come back."
He quickly took her out of the room after sending Farley a glance, to which she nodded.
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Madam Pomfrey almost blew a fuse when she saw the state of her scar tissue.
Dark, angry and red.
Every time she tried to heal it with her wand, Rebekah screamed in agony. A silencing spell had to be placed around her bed in the infirmary. She outright refused any magical treatment from Madam Pomfrey, it was almost too much pain to bear.
So Rebekah laid in the infirmary bed, clutching a pillow to keep any weight from pressing onto her shoulder or arm.
"I have to inform Dumbledore about this," Madam Pomfrey muttered, pacing then summoned a glowing orb of sky blue light. "Right, Miss Potter. Now you stay here for a little bit. We'll have this sorted in no time."
Rebekah nodded mutely, unshed tears glistened in her numb eyes.
Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape charged in within minutes. Madam Pomfrey and the trio of Professors huddled near Rebekah's bed, but far enough away that Rebekah couldn't hear what was said.
Madam Pomfrey began to redden in the face, her calm expressions changed to outright rage. She wagged a finger at Dumbledore, pointed to Rebekah and then looked to Snape and McGonagall. McGonagall had a stone cold expression, rigid and firm.
Snape was, as always, neutral but even Rebekah could see the rage in his eyes, only softening when they looked at Rebekah. His eyes darkened to black tunnels when he turned from her to Dumbledore, as if disdain and hatred consumed him.
It took several minutes for their heated conversation to cool. Snape flicked his robes with a sharp turn, he held a container the size of his palm, and came over to Rebekah's bedside.
"Good Afternoon, Miss Potter," He said.
"Afternoon, Sir," Rebekah said back. "Is that for my scar?"
"Yes, it is quite similar to the last one, but this one has extra ingredients that'll dull pain receptors that constantly go off," He said, twisting the lid off and showed her the dull seaweed green substance. "You will have to apply this daily, and whenever the scar begins to cause severe pain."
"Thank you, Professor."
His eyes were black, emotionless but covered with a calm face. His lips twirled up in the smallest smile Rebekah had ever seen. It was to reassure her that her pain would disappear, but she knew it would never leave her as long as she had the scar. It would be the constant reminder that she was the Girl-Who-Lived, that her parents were killed, that she was the reason that her parents were dead.
But it never occurred to her that there might have been Magical means to bring her parents back.
Was there something that could bring a person from the dead?
Something that could resurrect her parents?
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The next morning, right before breakfast even started, the owls brought the daily mail. A note was dropped in front of Rebekah, Draco, and Nott at the Slytherin table, and Granger had a note too. Rebekah and Draco compared their notes.
Your first detention will take place at ten o'clock tonight.
Meet Mr Hagrid at his hut.
Professor A Dumbledore
She and Draco exchanged notes and groaned.
"My father will be angry. Detention with Hagrid? What is Dumbledore thinking?" Draco said loudly to the group, most of them nodded and agreed. Rebekah sat back and ignored his comment. "Well, what do you say, Rebekah?"
She shrugged, picking at her roast potatoes and cauliflower with cheese. "I actually don't mind. I've been to the hut before, when I needed to get a special cream for Emperor. Hagrid was nice, like a huge teddy bear a little bit. I helped feed the Thestrals one time."
"Thestrals? Aren't they a bad omen though?"
Rebekah shook her head. "Only those who had seen Death, can see Thestrals."
There was silence for a moment, then Blaise decided to change the conversation.
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At precisely ten o'clock, Rebekah, Draco and Granger were at Hagrid's hut. It took Nott several minutes for him to finally arrive.
"Alright, yeh're all here," Hagrid said, holding the satchels in his hands. "Yeh shouldn't be doin' this but Dumbled're said yeh had to. We'll be feedin' the Thestrals t'night."
"What is he thinking? Thestrals!" Granger whispered to herself.
"Which ones of yeh can see a Thestral next ta the treeline?" Rebekah raised her hand as did Nott. "Alrighty, pair up and grab a satchel."
Nott straight away walked over to Draco and then pulled him along. Draco gave Rebekah a pleading look, but she chuckled and walked to Granger.
"You hold the satchel and I feed them?" Rebekah said, taking the satchel and then held it out for her to take. "It would be easier since I can see them."
"Since when did the school have Thestrals?" She shrieked. The question made Rebekah shrug.
"I don't know, perhaps several decades at least,"
The four students followed Hagrid into the Forbidden Forest, just enough so they were in a clearing of shallow grass but close to the treeline. The trees were thick and the sky was so full of clouds, no natural light entered the forest. The only light source was the roaring fire Hagrid started in the middle of the clearing, casting long shadows.
"Come on, dinner time!" Hagrid yelled, taking a large swing with a bell, ringing it twice. "They'll be coming in a minute, just yeh wait."
A small bundle of moving Thestral thrusted itself between Rebekah and Granger, causing the former to fall to the ground with a thud. Then Rebekah fell and landed abruptly with the foal trying to climb her body.
She stretched a hand to Granger, "Can you pass me bits of meat?"
Rebekah threw the flesh over to the side, the young Thestral picked it up and began to devour it. Her mother and father soon joined their foal. Rebekah fed them by hand as they circled her and then sat on the floor.
Granger watched in astonishment; she had never seen Rebekah so content and happy. The only indication of Thestrals being real were the long shadows the fire and their bodies caused, and the feeding when a piece of meat suddenly disappeared.
The young foal forced Rebekah to chase her, she wanted to play. Her young, boney body clicked as she jumped this way and that. The foal began to run deeper into the forest, just enough that the treeline was unseen.
Rebekah looked to Hagrid, indicating to the foal. He nodded with a large laugh and a wave of his hand. She chuckled, waved to Granger to follow, then ran after the foal. Granger quickly caught up, keeping her eyes on Rebekah.
Eventually the foal stopped, making Rebekah knock into her. The foal huffed, then sneezed as she ran head first into Granger's side. When Granger threw a piece of flesh, the foal caught it between her teeth.
She stopped chewing, the piece falling from her boney jaw. Her head jutted to the side then the other and back again, and again, and again. Even both Witches could feel the fear that rolled off of the young Thestral.
Out of the shadows of the Forbidden Forest, came a hooded figure crawling across the ground like an undead beast. Rebekah, Granger and the foal stood still, the latter ran right back to her parents. The figure reached the dying body of, what Rebekah presumed, a unicorn, thrn lowered its head over the wound. A long, serpentine tongue drank the silver, almost holy looking substance that came out of the wound.
Both girls screamed as loud as they could, the cloaked figure looked up and then scampered to its feet, making it swiftly towards the girls. They screamed again, tumbling backwards and then they began to sprint. The brush grounds preventing their escape to be as quick as they wanted.
Rebekah's shoulder was on fire. Spurt after painful spurt of liquid fire felt like it was coursing to the scar. She clutched it as she whimpered, tears dripped down her face in thin lines. Every tear pooled in her scarf, drenching it.
Another creature burst out of the shadows, the female Thestral almost flew into the figure's path, effectively blocking it from the girls. Her mate came quickly when she huffed loudly enough, he shielded her as she made her way to the girls. Kneeling, she forced Rebekah to get on as another creature, a running Centaur, grabbed Granger.
She sobbed into the neck of the dam. Rebekah had never felt this much pain. It wreaked havoc as it coursed through her left side. Eventually the pain reached everywhere from her red polished toes to her hair that was swirled into a bun with her wand as an anchor.
It became too much, much too quickly. Rebekah's body had used all of her adrenaline to run. Even she knew she couldn't stay awake with this much pain. She whispered a quick thank you to both creatures, then locked her hands around the dam's neck.
She willingly closed her eyes, allowing the shadows around to consume her.
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