Grave Portends

The week after Harry was released from the hospital was dreadful. Of course, everyone knew he had been attacked and had been in the hospital wing, so rumors of what happened spread like wildfire. He had been advised by Newt and Severus not to give details about what happened, only that he had been attacked by an unknown person. Due to the lack of details provided by Harry or Lyra, the gossip hounds and rumor mill at the school were allowed to develop their own theories, unchecked.

The most popular theory was that Harry got in a fight with the basilisk, gorgon, or whatever monster was lurking around the school. Someone asked Harry at dinner how he got away without being petrified, and before he could answer, Luna just mentioned that as long as he covered his eyes, he'd be safe from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. Megan had a great laugh and pulled out a towel to wrap her head and eyes in the middle of the meal. The following day, dozens of students were spotted carrying towels and scarves with them to class.

It was not just the rumors that were driving Harry nuts, it was the paranoia too. Other students running by him in the halls would make him jump and even when Whispers would touch his arm, it made him panic. He was starting to regret bullying Vincent because this is probably how the boy had felt the week before he was petrified. Harry didn't feel bad about nearly killing the boy, just for having so many pranks done to him after he had been hurt.

As a result, Harry was walking everywhere with his wand in hand, ready at a moment's notice. Most people stayed clear of him as he walked, for fear he would lash out at the slightest provocation. He also had light scars on his wrists and ankles, not that anyone could see the latter, but it just fueled the rumors on what could have happened to cause them.

They started to learn the severing charm from Professor Flitwick. Harry was feeling in a particularly destructive mood and along with the theory he had gotten from Hermione, he was able to pick it up quickly. When they were told the incantation, 'Diffindo,' Harry immediately recognized it from the red spell that Draco had tried to hit him with, during their first encounter. Hermione had told him that he'd only be able to cut things at the tip of his wand, but obviously, he could also learn to shoot it like most other spells.

He first attempted it in one of the spell bunkers in the Scamander study room. Recalling the slashing motion that Draco had used, he channeled his magic into the wand and tried casting the spell as he called out the incantation. He saw a small bit of red magic at the tip of his wand, but as soon as he started to move it through the air, the magic stopped. It still worked when his wand was held close to the softer materials he wanted to cut, but whenever he tried to project it at a distant target, the magic failed.

No matter what he tried, if he moved his wand more than a few inches away from his target, the spell would fail and he would need to start over. He didn't want to give up on this and continued to practice. The solution was brought to him by an unlikely source, Neville Longbottom.

The normally spacey boy saw him practicing and approached carefully, "Hey… Harry. What… are you doing?"

Harry had been spending so much attention on his project, that he didn't notice Neville's approach, though he was very quiet, to begin with. He had been thinking of asking Cedric for help, but Neville was a second-year student, like Draco, so Harry decided on trying him first.

"I can't figure out how to cast a cutting spell without touching my target," Harry complained, frustration in his voice.

"Oh!" he paused for a moment while collecting his thoughts. "I can help you with that!" his face brightened. "My Uncle Algie showed me over the summer."

Both Harry and Lyra had been trying to get a read on Neville the whole year. They had heard rumors from when he was in Gryffindor, he had started last year as a nervous wreck, constantly chasing after his pet toad and muttering to himself. However, after resorting to Scamander, that changed, he started to be more confident and he was never worried about his toad, Trevor. He still lost the strange pet regularly, but he either knew where Trevor disappeared to or just shrugged and said he would be back later.

The boy had also been spending a lot of time in the climbing gym that he had asked for from the Scamanders. He wasn't nearly as fast as Harry or Lyra, but he had gained a huge amount of endurance. Newt had put in a rope climb that would go on forever, while only staying a few feet above the ground; Neville would keep on that rope for half an hour without taking a break, slow and steady the whole time.

He still had a few strange things going on with him. He would occasionally snap into some kind of serious lecture at people who mishandled plants or didn't follow the proper protocol like not washing their hands after leaving the bathroom or leaving their shoes on when entering a dorm after being in the common room. It was even more strange, as once he was done with a serious lecture, he just spaced out as if nothing had happened.

The other weird thing was his magic - it just didn't work properly. His spells were underpowered despite the obvious effort and perfect wand work he was employing. It wasn't just his spells, as when he was flying for Quidditch practice, his broom would falter occasionally and also have large bursts of speed too. He never did anything wrong, it was just that some things didn't work out properly for him when they were related to his magic.

Harry spent more time with him than Lyra, as Neville spent a lot of time with Greg, due to both of them enjoying gardening; so he knew that when Neville got excited about something, he would know exactly what he was talking about, though he might not be able to demonstrate it as well as he articulated it.

Harry smiled at his friend and asked, "What am I doing wrong?"

Neville pulled out his wand, which was walnut colored that grew darker towards the handle. It twisted a bit to allow for a better grip, and despite the amount of care he spent polishing the wood, it was very worn from use. The boy held it carefully as if he knew it was temperamental. Harry stepped to the side as his friend pointed it into the spell bunker.

"You're not doing anything wrong, you're just not cutting the right thing." Neville wove his wand and cast, "Diffindo!" causing a small sliver of red to slice through the air and impact harmlessly on the back wall of the bunker. "What are you trying to cut?" he asked while turning to Harry.

"The back wall," he replied. "I know I won't be able to cut it, but I'm still trying."

"My Uncle Algie explained it to me," Neville smiled slightly. "I wanted to trim the Venomous Tentacula in my greenhouse but when it's feeling upset, it won't let me get close enough to do it by hand." Nevile flicked his wand toward the bunker and cast the spell again, letting another tiny sliver of red hit the back wall. "The spell will cut everything in its path, even the air, but if you don't intend on cutting the air… it won't."

"But you can't cut the air," Harry said in confusion.

"That's what I told my uncle," Neville shrugged. "He told me to think of it like a sheet of silk, ice, or spiderwebs. When you cast the spell, you need to want the spell to cut through the air towards your target or it won't work." He stepped out of the way, "Give it a shot, Harry."

Imagining the air as not air was strange to consider, but he remembered a part of the island where a lot of spiders lived. He avoided that place because walking through those trees would get him covered with silky webs that would be hard to get off and spiders would land on top of him. He shivered and shook a little just remembering the feeling of spiderwebs all over his arms and neck.

Taking a step back and shaking his head, he looked into the bunker and imagined it to be filled with webs. He raised his wand with the intention of cutting through all of them and into the back wall, and cast, "Diffindo!"

A sliver of red light left his wand and traveled just a few inches into his imaginary spiderwebs before vanishing. It wasn't a lot, but it was something.

"You did it!" Neville cheered. Seeing Harry about to respond, he added, "It wasn't much, but it will get better. It took me all summer to get it right."

"Thanks, Neville," Harry told him sincerely.

"My Gran always told me that our parents were friends and that I should help you out whenever I could."

It was just another example of someone who had known more about Harry's parents but never helped him out. At least Neville was making an effort. However, before Harry could continue the conversation, he noticed a glassy look in the boy's eyes as he did after a lecture or a large burst of magic when flying and just wandered off, leaving Harry to stand there for a moment before continuing to practice with the charm.

Lyra had noticed how Harry was in a jumpy and fearful mood after his attack. She realized that this must be similar to how she felt when the two of them met, fearful of an attack from anywhere. Even though he had magic and was able to defend himself, he must have felt completely helpless in that position. Her mood must also be similar to how Harry felt when dealing with Draco or Vincent in regard to their treatment of her or Hermione. She did feel like an angel of vengeance and just needed an outlet for justice. However, neither of them was doing anything to help Harry feel better.

She was studying Herbology at the base of a tree in the common room when Whispers approached her with half a mango for her to snack on. As the two of them ate and her little brother stared at the pictures of all the plants in the book, she recalled one of her most treasured memories. When they first went to collect hoohoo feathers at the top of the volcano, she danced around while giving off sparks from the feather and Harry gave her a mango. That was what she needed to do for Harry. She had seen Draco being given candy by her father when he did magic, but she never got any. When Harry had given her that sweet mango, she knew that she never needed to worry about the acceptance of her father or Draco ever again.

Harry would probably love to play with the Lampong right now. It would make him feel happy to clash with it and give him a feeling of strength again after being put in such a position of weakness and vulnerability. However, his guardian animal was on the other side of the world. So she decided to settle for the next best thing and ran off with Whispers to Professor Kettleburn's office.

His classroom was open when she arrived and there were several students gathered around a small pen in the back of the classroom. Inside the pen were three strange creatures that looked like miniature llamas with saucer-sized eyes and webbed feet while having skin that looked closer to a seal than a land mammal.

The students were mostly taking notes and sketches while others were feeding the creatures. They seemed deliriously happy at any action the students took. One of them even made a motion like they were going to stab one in the face with a quill but stopped at the last second with the creature just giving off a sound like a giggle and rubbing its head against that student's stomach.

Lyra held out her hand to one of them and it bounded over to her to rub its head against her hand. The skin felt rubbery and had very dense short hairs all over it that rubbed against her as it giggled and cooed. She was broken out of her concentration by the clinking sound of Professor Kettleburn's mechanical leg walking up behind the group. Whispers jumped into the pen and started petting the creature that she had been engaged with before.

"Good evening Miss Black, are you enjoying the mooncalves?"

"Is that what they are?" she asked. "Harry has a vest made from mooncalf leather."

"Yes, they are endangered now because of overhunting. Their skin makes some of the finest leather in the world. They are also hopelessly naive and trusting, never running away from those that mean them harm."

One of the older students drew a wand and asked the professor, "May I?"

After the professor gave him a nod, he pointed his wand right at the calf in front of him, and stunned it, causing it to slump to the floor. The other mooncalves turned in his direction and ran over, starting to jump up and down in front of him, to which he responded by petting them as they cuddled his hand. After half a minute, he pointed his wand at the stunned animal and woke it up. Instead of being at all hostile, it lined up with the others for its turn for pets and cuddles as if nothing was the matter.

"You can see, Miss Black," Kettleburn began, "while they do eat fish and shellfish, they have no fear from any type of predator and don't seem to retain any sort of hostility towards one who has already attacked them. It was quite easy for them to be almost hunted to extinction as a result of this kind of behavior."

"That's a bit sad," she frowned at the adorable creatures, "but at least they make people smile."

"So what can I do to help you tonight? I was planning on speaking to you over the weekend about bringing Whispers to one of my classes next week."

Lyra perked up at that, "Is it during our History class?"

The other students chuckled as he replied, "It is indeed. I figure you and Harry could join my Tuesday evening class and stay for the whole double period."

Lyra nodded enthusiastically as she looked at the Hidden snuggling on the floor with one of the mooncalves in the pen. Switching topics, she got back to her original mission, "I was also hoping that Harry and I could join you on this Saturday's unicorn visit."

"We try to keep those groups as small as possible, to avoid spooking them with too many people," he told her. Seeing her pleading eyes, he continued, "But I get it, Mr. Potter went through an ordeal last weekend, some time with the unicorns would be good for him, and they did appear to like him on his last visit. The two of you may join us tomorrow night."

Lyra thanked the professor, then let Whispers cuddle with the mooncalf for a little while longer before returning to the common room to inform Harry.

On Saturday, the dueling club was held again. Flitwick and Lockhart were in attendance, but Snape was absent. Instead of the seven platforms that were set up in the Great Hall from the previous week, there was now twice as many set up in two rows of seven going across almost the entire room, though these weren't as highly raised off the floor, just an inch high, so you could see the edges.

Lockhart was again wearing his black with gold lining dueling robes, and Professor Flitwick was just in his professor's robes. With double the number of platforms, there weren't many places for all the students to stand. There were significantly fewer students than in the previous meeting, but there were enough that they needed to stand over about half the platforms to all fit into the room.

Flitwick just started to play with his wand as Lockhart addressed the students, "Welcome back! While there are quite a few Gryffindors present, I see that many more of you have been brave enough to return for more duels. However, this week, we will be learning and not competing with each other."

There were several groans from the students, but Lockhart called out over them, "You won't get better just by throwing spells at each other, you need to learn technique and style. Including today, we have five more weeks of the club before the end-of-the-year exams. For the next few weeks, we will work on your skills, then on the fifth of May, we will have another tournament to see how much you have improved."

That got everyone's attention and focus, "For today, we are just going to be working on three things; aiming, dodging, and shielding. Each set of two platforms is for each year so we can work with more of you at once. Professor Flitwick will work with the older students on advanced shields and I will work with the younger students on your aim and dodging."

All of the students started to separate themselves and Lockhart addressed the younger years as a group. They first learned the spell he had tagged Professor Snape with the previous week, the red paint spell. It was meant to be very simple, just point and speak 'Rubio' for it to work.

Lockhart told a brief story about a festival held in Spain known as La Tomatina where an entire town gets involved in a bizarre fight with everyone throwing tomatoes at each other. The Rubio spell mimics the color and impact of a splattered tomato and vanishes after an hour. He started to tell about a witch he met at the festival many years ago, but stopped mid-sentence, saying, "But that's a story for another time."

From there, everyone paired off and was told to first take turns with one student casting the spell and the other one dodging. There was a barrier between the two rows of platforms so they wouldn't hit the fifth through seventh-year students while they practiced with advanced shielding. Lockhart tried to spend as much time as possible with the younger students showing them proper dodging techniques and avoiding giving any advice about shielding as it wasn't his specialty. It wasn't as much fun as last week, but after half an hour, nearly everyone was covered in red paint. Harry too had splots of red all over as he was trying to practice the shielding spell rather than use the one he had learned from the Lampong.

At the end of the practice, Lockhart got back up on the stage and fired a cannon blast charm, and as he did so, the dueling platforms sunk to be level with the floor. "Well done everyone! You've all worked hard on both shielding and dodging today, and as a reward for your hard work, the final exercise before we leave will have no shields at all; just a free for all - paint spells only!"

Turning to Professor Flitwick point-blank, Lockhart called out, "Rubio!" splattering red paint on the tiny man.

The students were all shocked and stood there waiting, knowing the response would be epic. Flitwick examined the red on his black robes before whipping his wand towards Lockhart and unleashing a firehose of rainbow paint, knocking him off the stage and onto the ground. That action also had many other students turn toward someone near them and let loose a paint spell of their own. The room dissolved into further chaos from there.

The paint was flying everywhere as Harry ducked one shot to be hit by half a dozen others. No one was able to dodge completely, so he just ran around shooting paint spells at anyone and everyone. Many of the students started trying to only use their own house colors for paint attacks, but nearly all of the younger students were sticking to the red paint spell that Lockhart had taught them.

Harry stopped for a moment to watch Lyra dancing while throwing paint around. Her regular platinum blonde hair was a myriad of colors, and dripping onto the floor. As he stood there watching her enjoy herself, he felt something hit his shoulder that was not a paint spell. That particular shoulder was currently painted silver, possibly from Blaise hitting him with some of Slytherin's colors, but now there was a crimson liquid leaking out from under his robes. Someone had hit him in the left shoulder with a cutting curse.

Abandoning the no-shielding rule, Harry pulled out his staff and created a large dome around himself just as another cutting spell hit him in the leg, causing him to fall to one knee. Some students started to call out friendly curses toward Harry for cheating, but Cedric immediately noticed the blood on Harry's shoulder.

"Harry's been hit!" the older boy called out while firing off a cannon blast and rushing to his side.

Many more Scamander students heard the call and rushed to Harry's side, creating a circle around him, and those who knew it cast shields. Some paint continued to fly as Lockhart and Flitwick rushed to Harry's side, calling out for a cease-fire.

In a booming voice, unfitting for his size, Professor Flitwick called out, "No one leaves!" and the doors to the Great Hall slammed shut. That caused anyone who was still firing spells to stop and fall silent.

Harry started to feel tingling along his arm as Cedric was casting healing charms on it. Lockhart kneeled next to Harry and examined the older boy's work, "I was about to say I could fix Harry up in a jiffy, but it seems like he's already got someone to do it. Ten points to you, Mr. Diggory."

Flitwick had all the other students lined up against the sides of the hall, "Wands out! One of you attacked Mr. Potter, and I will be checking everyone to find the culprit."

Lyra stood near Flitwick, just waiting for him to find the student who had attacked Harry, her hair glowing with the threat of potential flames. Cedric, meanwhile, finished with Harry's leg and he stood up. The Charms Professor performed a spell on each student's wand that pulled various colors of smoke out of the tips. At a much slower pace, Lockhart began doing the same procedure for the Scamanders who were still standing protectively around Harry and it ended up taking him just as long to check them as it did for Flitwick to check the rest of the students.

Whoever had cast the spell had managed to avoid whatever method Flitwick and Lockhart had employed to check their wands to see who had attacked Harry, so Cedric escorted Harry along with the other Scamanders to visit Madam Pomfrey. As they were leaving he heard Flitwick telling the assembled students from the other houses that their names would be kept on record and when the culprit was found, they would be punished severely.

The matron of the infirmary looked strangely at the mass of students that entered, covered in various colors of magical paint, but quickly spied the blood on Harry's robes and guided him and Cedric to a bed to inspect his work. A privacy curtain was drawn around Harry, Madam Pomfrey, and Cedric as Harry's robes, shirt, and pants were disposed of. Even without the paint and blood, the cuts made them no longer wearable. That was two sets of robes that had been ruined in two weeks of the dueling club.

There were thin red lines where Cedric had healed Harry's cuts and the healer performed numerous diagnostic spells on him before she determined him ok. Pomfrey allowed the other students next to the bed but told Cedric and Harry not to go anywhere while she left for her office. Even though everyone else was asking him questions about what had happened, Lyra kept her eyes on the door to the infirmary, her wand drawn.

Harry tried to explain what little he could to his friends, but it was just that he felt wet under his robes and a brief slice of pain before noticing the blood on top of all the paint. No one was able to provide any additional information as the cutting hex was almost the exact shade of red as the red splattering spells that were primarily being thrown around the younger students. After a few more minutes, Madam Pomfrey exited her office with a few papers.

"Mr. Potter, you are free to leave. Mr. Diggory provided you with the proper first aid and healing spells." She passed the papers she had been carrying to Cedric, "Mr. Diggory has also successfully completed the healing competency that Mr. Scamander has required to become a prefect next year. I'll award him ten points for this completion."

Cedric took the papers and rolled them up before taking time to find a place to put them as most of his pockets and sleeves were still covered with paint that hadn't vanished yet. As everyone congratulated Cedric, they made their way back to the common room.

After the dueling club incident, Harry had been holed up in their favorite tree, working on homework and trying to figure out the appropriate ritual circle to use for the project with Lee and the Twins. He was pretty sure that the older boys needed to be more involved for this part, as the amount of arithmancy, numerology, and ancient runes that were used to construct the correct circle were far beyond knowing how many stirs to use when brewing a potion and many of the circles had more than the nine dimensions that the blessing circle he and Lyra had used in the past. The schematics in the ritual book that Brandt had given him also weren't always circles; they had sides, inverted sections, overlapping zones, and much much more.

The books Hermione had recommended to him for self-study of Ancient Runes were also quite challenging but included a lot of theory, so he focused on that. Runes seemed to be just a more complicated kind of numerology with different characters representing one or more ideas. Sometimes they were used as writing which, in the case of the local language - Futhark, had vast amounts of possibilities for the meanings in just a few sentences. It required studying the historical context of the writing to determine what the person writing it intended to do with their magic. This was made even more complicated as the language was used among muggles predating the statute of secrecy, so sometimes writings in Futhark were just that, writing, and had no magical significance to them.

Harry opted to continue studying the books through dinner as Astray and Whispers brought him food without him asking. After the sun on the wall had set, and the stars on the ceiling came out, Harry was startled as a heavy coat was thrown at him by his sister.

"Stop hiding and come out to see the unicorns!" she told him.

"I'm studying, not hiding!" he replied angrily but refused to leave the tree.

Lyra pulled out a small box from behind her back and opened it to reveal it was filled with various bugs, none of which looked appetizing. "Do we really have to play this game?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

Not wanting to pick bugs out of his hair all evening, Harry put on the coat that had been thrown at him and sighed. Together, they climbed down from the tree and collected Whispers who was having tea and cheese with Astray in the corner of the room. Their Hidden brother collected his yeti-fur gloves and they made their way out to the courtyard where Professor Kettleburn was waiting to escort all the students while carrying a pole with a rooster cage, the same as the one Professor Sinistra had on their trek through the depths of the library.

The professor guided them to a large wicker basket filled with necklaces that had different metal charms on the end of them. "Everyone will take a necklace," he instructed them. "It contains a portkey that will bring you back to this spot if you use the activation phrase - Niffler. I may also activate all of them at once if we need to make a hasty retreat back to the castle."

After everyone was wearing a necklace, they started their journey. They stopped briefly at Hagrid's hut to collect the giant man and his boarhound who didn't growl at Harry and Lyra at all this time. He did start to make a grumble towards Whispers who just growled back, but the large dog stopped as soon as his challenge was met. From there, they headed into the woods.

Harry and Lyra stayed at the front of the group with Hagrid who was even more on edge than Harry, eyes darting around with his crossbow drawn and other hand twitching towards the handle of a pink umbrella sticking out of his pocket.

He looked down to see Harry in a similar state, walking with his staff in his right and ready to draw his wand at a moment's notice, "Gotta stay on guard, these are dark times we're in. Dark times."

Another student walking with them asked the large man, "Because of the 'basilisk?'" He used air quotes and spoke with great sarcasm. "The Unspeakables will cure everyone of the petrification at the end of the year and whatever is doing it will be caught eventually."

"People are getting petrified now," Hagrid told him. "It won't be long till someone gets killed, like last time."

Harry and Lyra shared a look, the Headmaster did say that Hagrid had been framed for the petrifications the last time this happened. He didn't say that anyone had been killed though.

"Who died?" Harry asked.

Hagrid looked despondent, "Miss Warren. She was my friend. Not a good friend, but we knew each other. She's why I live out on the edge of the forest." He looked through the trees towards the last remaining lights from the castle, "When Dumbledore first gave me this job, I had a room in the castle, but I couldn't bear to see Miss Warren every day roaming the halls and mourning her death."

"She's a ghost?" Lyra asked.

Hagrid nodded, "She haunts the spot where she died in the second-floor girls' bathroom. You all know her as Moaning Myrtle."

Quite a few people were listening to the story now and were shocked to hear about the most annoying ghost in the castle. No one used that bathroom due to the spectral girl's invasion of everyone's privacy when they used the facilities.

"I thought Binns was the youngest ghost at school," one of the other students proclaimed.

"Old Cuthbert died a few decades before I was a student," Hagrid told them.

"His name is Cuthbert?" someone asked. "I think I'd die on my own if that was my name."

Their discussion was stopped short as they reached the clearing and found it not occupied by unicorns, but by nearly twenty centaurs. All of them were wielding some sort of weapon; bows, axes, long swords, and lances. They stood at the center of the clearing staring upwards at the stars. Professor Kettleburn held out his hand to tell the students to wait with Hagrid while he approached the group of equine warriors. The group noticed the humans and trotted in their direction, fanning out to encircle them.

"Magorian, is there something wrong tonight?" Kettleburn addressed the tallest in the group by nearly a full head. He had pointed ears sticking out under black hair and deeply tanned skin. He wore a necklace of silver disks and was the only one in the herd to have any kind of adornments.

While the centaur would still need to tilt his head up to look Hagrid in the eye, he looked down at Kettleburn the same way Dumbledore might look down at Lyra. There was a bit of annoyance in his eyes as he did so.

He stared at the man for a moment longer before looking skyward, "Mars is bright tonight. Centauri and Auriga are obscured while Mars is bright." The other centaurs nodded along as they gripped their weapons tightly.

The one Harry remembered as Talos stepped forward, placing his sword back in its sheath, "The time for the stars and darkness is upon us, we will endeavor to protect them both."

Another male stepped out of the line and continued the strange discussion, "The crown lies between the great players of the game; though, if it falls, another may be able to take it for himself."

All of the students, along with Hagrid and Kettleburn, Whispers and Fang, looked incredibly confused. With their speech having apparently ended, the herd of centaurs started to move out of the clearing and deeper into the forest.

Harry quickly ran up to the side of the centaur he recognized as Agestra, who had spoken clearly and with fewer riddles to him before, "What's going on? Can I help?"

She kneeled to lower herself in front of him, speaking kindly to him, "We have delivered our message to you. Your cards have already been dealt. You just need to play them."

With that said, Agestra stood back up to her full height and galloped off to join the rest of the herd, leaving Harry to ponder her slightly less cryptic message.

Professor Kettleburn spoke up, "Well, for those who haven't had a conversation with our centaurs before, I have never known them to speak falsely. However, I seldom know what they are talking about, to begin with. If you've got a bag of food, set it out to greet our unicorns."

It took nearly ten minutes more to set out all the food and the herd to greet them. Whispers tried to eat some of it but was shooed away by Hagrid who told him not to take from the unicorns' food. While they ate, Kettleburn and Hagrid took each student out like before, one at a time to meet the herd.

When it was Harry's turn, he approached the foal he had met before right away. The horn was now about an inch out of its head and the golden coat had started to recede in the shape of a five-petaled white flower that had passed its ears and eyes, but not any further. A few of the other unicorns approached Harry and started to sniff at his staff, looking curiously towards the white antler on top of it.

One of the younger stallions approached Harry and began to rub his horn against the antler on Harry's staff. He was batting at it from different angles and challenging him to a fight.

Harry looked toward Professor Kettleburn, "Can I play with him?"

"What do you mean Mr. Potter?" the man looked a bit confused.

"He wants to playfight. Just for fun, can I?" Harry asked.

The other students looked very interested, Hagrid looked giddy, but Kettleburn was conflicted. Lyra added her two knuts, "It should be fine. Harry plays with the Lampong he got the antler from all the time. It's taller than Hagrid."

Kettleburn drew his wand, and said, "If you need help, just say so and I'll portkey you right back to the castle."

Harry smiled and ran off to the side of the herd, with the stallion following him at a trot. When he thought he was far enough away, he turned back around and looked the unicorn in the eye and scratched at the ground with his foot while the antler started to glow and light up the meadow. Meanwhile, Lyra sat on the ground with Whispers next to her feeding the golden foal some popcorn.

The juvenile saw Harry returning his challenge and galloped to the far side of the meadow before turning around and charging Harry, horn down. As he galloped, the white of his coat seemed to shine brighter and his horn gave a small sparkle. Meanwhile, Harry had been twisting his staff to gain a bit of strength before lowering it and charging as well.

The unicorn was much faster than he thought it would be and he had barely run a dozen paces before they collided. While the Lampong had some kind of shield around it, the unicorn did not. When its horn impacted Harry's shield in front of the antler, there was a shower of sparkles as it pushed Harry back. The moment of impact had gasps from the onlookers, with Lyra and Whispers cheering. As soon as the unicorn broke contact, the rest of the spectators joined in on the cheers.

After a few more charges, a couple of other unicorns formed a queue to play with the strange wizard as well. Though when the obvious leader of the group stepped up to take a turn, Harry recognized the danger from the larger equine and turned off the glow from his staff. The patriarch looked a bit disappointed as did most of the other students who booed his disengagement.

Lyra, on the other hand, just jumped up and ran over to Harry, pulling out her own broom as she went from her pouch. She tossed it to him and snatched his staff at the same time, pulling out a jar of her sticking solution as well and slathering one side of the staff before he could do a thing about it.

Harry smiled and let her attach the staff to the side of the broom before he mounted it and lit up the staff again. The spectators looked intrigued, while the unicorn patriarch looked a bit confused. To show off his new ability, Harry did a few laps of the meadow and then came back to his original spot, hovered a couple of feet off the ground, and scratched at the ground with his dangling leg.

The larger unicorn returned the gesture and bowed its head, reading for a charge. After some mutually recognized signal, they both charged. To Harry it felt like nearly ten seconds before they clashed, to Lyra and everyone else, it took maybe one. The impact released an explosion of sparkles into the meadow as Harry was knocked into the air. However, after experiencing that same thing with the Lampong, he recovered and flew around the meadow to make another pass.

The second time, he held his ground as the two both pushed against each other as hard as they could before the herd leader threw his head and tossed Harry away again, forcing him to recover and make another pass. They exchanged two more clashes before the unicorn halted its charge suddenly and looked in a direction deeper into the forest.

Harry aborted his charge and spun a bit in the air to recover before landing by the group and looking the creature in the eyes.

The other unicorns were also all looking in the same direction, and Harry stated, "Something's wrong."

Suddenly there was a massive noise like a falling tree or many falling trees in the direction that the unicorns were looking. The massive noise startled the group of unicorns and they took off in the opposite direction. The ground shook as the group from Hogwarts continued to listen to the catastrophic noises for a few minutes longer before a voice nearly deafened them.

"Stay away from my children! This is my home, I will retreat no further!"

A look of concern crossed Hagrid's face as he called out, "Aragog! No!" Then he ran in the direction of the colossal voice with Fang changing after, all his cowardice vanished as he went to protect his master.

Kettleburn turned to the students, "Everyone back to the castle, NOW!"

Everyone called out "Niffler!" and there were pops everywhere as all the students except for Lyra, Harry, and Whispers remained.

"You three as well!" Kettleburn ordered them.

Harry was about to go as well before he heard,

§I will eat as many of your children as I desire!§

Harry immediately snatched the portkey that had been given from his neck and tossed it away before doing the same for Lyra. Whispers did it for himself before the three mounted Harry's broom and took off after Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn followed them, yelling at them as they went.

Sounds of a battle rang out ahead as Harry quickly told Lyra, "It's the basilisk, I heard it talking to the voice we heard."

Lyra readied her staff and after nearly a minute of dodging trees, a large shape flew towards them, causing them to stop and dodge, as it smashed through two trees before falling to the ground. The dark shape groaned as it stood up, revealing a thoroughly bloodied Hagrid with a large chunk of bloodied meat held tightly in his fist.

Professor Kettleburn caught up and saw the enormous groundskeeper wiping the blood from his face, "Rubeus! What the bloody hell did that?"

He held up the chunk of flesh in his hand, which was probably as big as Harry's entire torso. It was lined with dark green scales and dripping with blood.

"It was a great ruddy snake that attacked Aragog. The Centaurs were there too. I've never seen them fight alongside Aragog's children. I managed to grab the tail of the snake, but then it just launched me into the forest. I think it was fleeing from the fight as I got there."

"It's the basilisk," Harry told them.

"What's an Aragog?" Lyra added.

"It's the biggest bloody spider in the world," Professor Kettleburn told them. "It's time for the two of you and Whispers to go back, now."

"No," Harry, Lyra, and Whispers said together.

"I need to check on Aragog and Fang," Hagrid started stumbling back in the direction of the fight. Though the sounds of battle had stopped since Hagrid had been launched toward them.

Professor Kettleburn ran after the three others that followed Hagrid, yelling about detentions that were ignored. They ran for another few minutes, in horror at how far Hagrid had been thrown through many trees before getting to a clearing made of dozens of fallen trees. Scattered around the clearing were petrified centaurs, all in various poses of battle, and body parts presumably belonging to spiders.

The size of the parts was strange. Some looked like they were from spiders the size of dogs and others the size of horses or cars. They were all mangled in one way or another and a few were still twitching. There were also those that seemed to be melting with steam rising from their bodies.

Kettleburn pointed to the melting parts, "Stay away from those. If it was a basilisk, the venom would kill you if you touch it."

"Where's Fang?" Hagrid yelled. "Fang! Where are you boy!"

A deep, rumbling voice could be heard from the line of trees still standing, "He is here, Friend Hagrid. He is injured, but I protected him."

There was a shuffling noise as an enormous mass moved out from the trees. Kettleburn stepped in front of the children as a spider, just barely smaller than the Dursleys' house ambled forward. It did not move with the dexterity of a normal spider as it was missing three legs and had a large gash on its side that was lightly steaming. It stared at the group with a dozen lidless eyes, shifting back and forth to take them all in and examine them. With its remaining front leg, it reached underneath its body and pulled forth Hagrid's boarhound, Fang, whimpering slightly.

"Your companion fought well," the great spider told Hagrid. "His injuries are light and his teeth have bits of our prey in them."

"Will you be alright, old friend?" Hagrid asked.

While Hagrid continued to speak to the spider, Harry looked around at the centaurs all petrified in the clearing of fallen trees. Most of them had been frozen with their weapons raised, but Agestra had her spear fully thrust forward and the tip was dripping with blood. Seeing the opportunity in front of him, he called over Lyra and quickly gathered the blood while she began to shape the clay for the amulet. Having seen the process a few times, Whispers literally dove into her pouch up to his ankles and pulled out a handful of hoohoo feathers.

As there was quite a bit of blood on the tip of the spear, they made three amulets before returning to Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn as they spoke with the monstrous spider.

Professor Kettleburn was asking Aragog, "So how did you survive the basilisk? You're not dead or petrified, and the venom hardly seems to be slowing you down."

"It causes me great pain, but my own venom makes me less susceptible to others. The basilisk's stare only affects those that are lesser creatures. I am the king of my domain, a champion of my race. The children you have brought will understand as I can feel they lived amongst many such creatures."

The two adults turned to Lyra and Harry with questions written all over their faces.

"We called them Protectors," Lyra replied.

"I can sense their presence in your magic," the massive spider champion replied.

That surprised Harry and Lyra, but they weren't able to reply as a huge ball of fire appeared in the middle of the meadow and when it subsided, Albus Dumbledore stood in the center of where it had been, and perched on his shoulder was a fiery phoenix with flames dripping from its wings like hot wax. It had grown substantially from when they had seen it last, though it was still smaller than the hoohoo patriarch from the island.

The giant spider retreated a bit towards the edge of the trees as the headmaster looked around at the scene.

"Children at the school rushed to the infirmary, saying that they had been sent back after the unicorn feeding."

"The basilisk was here!" Harry informed him. "It attacked the centaurs and ate the spiders."

"I got a piece of it," Hagrid informed Dumbledore, and held up the bloody piece he had been holding. His other arm now cradled Fang, who was now conscious and licking his arm.

Dumbledore examined the piece the groundskeeper was holding, then took it from him and seemed to drop it into an invisible pocket in the air, vanishing from sight. He turned to the phoenix on his shoulder and said, "Sic 'em."

The phoenix let out a sharp cry that seemed to fuel Harry's mind with a desire to hunt, then flew off into the forest, following a pathway of fallen trees and crushed underbrush.

Albus stared at Harry and Lyra for a moment before giving Whispers a small look as well, then turned to Kettleburn, "Am I correct to assume that Mr. Potter and Miss Black refused to return with the others, trying to go after the basilisk themselves?"

"Yes sir," he replied. "They lost a hundred points for their house and have both earned themselves detention every weekend for the rest of the term."

"That's not fair!" Lyra shouted.

"You should have thought about it before you removed your portkeys and went running off into the forest," Kettleburn admonished them.

Harry released some of his magic and anger toward the Magical Creatures teacher, who shivered at the display. Dumbledore, however, released his own incredible amount of magic, squashing Harry's display.

"Stop that. You both broke the rules and refused to obey a professor in a dangerous situation." Dumbledore looked down at Whispers, "You too, Sir Whispers." The demiguise ducked his head in shame. "You will serve the detentions you were assigned."

"I know you two probably don't like me right now, but you will also need to be at my Tuesday class with Whispers. If you prefer, I can call that one day of your detention the following weekend. Your choice which day you don't serve."

Dumbledore had meanwhile approached the injured giant spider, "Aragog, you have done well protecting the forest and the school. Will the centaurs be looked after here or should I move them somewhere away from your brood?"

"Were I not injured, I could protect them from my children. They are too impulsive to differentiate between friend and foe without instruction. Please move these noble warriors to keep my weakness from harming them further."

Dumbledore looked up and away from the scene as his phoenix returned in a ball of fire. They shared a look in the eyes before the phoenix flew over to two centaurs frozen close together and let out a great cry as fire exploded from its wings, wrapping the two in flames. When the flames had subsided, they had vanished.

The headmaster looked toward everyone else, "Fawkes will return to bring the others to safety. We can walk back to the school from here."

He strolled off down the path of destruction the basilisk had left with the others following him closely. After walking for some time, they exited the forest on the far side of the Black Lake. Out of the forest, there was a path in the dirt from the basilisk that led into the lake. This was the first time Harry had been able to see anything to tell the size of the creature and it made him just a bit more nervous than he had already been.

The basilisk was bigger than the Usurper. At least in girth, Harry could tell from the impression in the ground that it was much wider than the kingsbane. He couldn't tell how long it was but it stood to reason that it was longer as well. A quick look towards Lyra and he could see that she understood this as well. However, all it needed to do was hear the Usurper's voice and it should be dead. At least there was that piece of good news.

"Rubeus, Silvanus," Dumbledore addressed the adults, "please take the children and Whispers back to the castle. I am going to go speak with the chieftain of the merpeople for his assistance with tracking the basilisk. The hunters from the Ministry will arrive tomorrow and hopefully, this matter will be over soon."

The headmaster tapped himself on the head and a large bubble appeared over it. Then, with surprising agility, he leaped nearly twenty feet into the air and dove headfirst into the lake, disappearing below the surface.

Kettleburn looked toward Harry and Lyra, "Unless the two of you want to lose more points, we're going back to the castle now. Rubeus, you're going to the infirmary. I suspect it will take Poppy quite a while to heal even the smallest of your scratches."

Harry and Lyra nodded glumly as Whispers adopted their posture and plodded after them as they returned to the castle.

Chapter 95