Filch led the four of them to McGonagall's office. The four of them began thinking of excuses, thinking of how they could possibly get out of this. McGonagall then stepped into the room, followed by Neville. "Harry, I was coming to warn you" said Neville. "Malfoy was trying to catch you, he said you had a dra-" but Harry quickly shook his head to shut him up. "I cannot believe there are six students roaming the castle at 1:00 in the morning" said McGonagall. "I want you to explain yourselves." The four of them couldn't think of an excuse, and just stood there silent. "I think I know what's happening, you fed Malfoy some cock and bull story about a dragon to get him in trouble" said McGonagall. "I've already caught him, and I suppose you think it's funny that Mr Longbottom also believes it." "Ms Pines, I would think you would know better than to defy school rules, after what happened with your brother." "Ms Northwest, I can see why your father wanted you to come here instead of Ilvermorny, He didn't want you giving his own country a bad name." "Ms Granger, you've been a top student all year, I expected better from you." "Mr Potter, I thought you actually cared about Gryffindor." "To ensure this does not happen again, fifty points will be taken." "Fifty?" asked Harry. "From each of you, and that includes you too Mr Longbottom" said McGonagall. "All five of you will be receiving detention."
The next day, most of the Gryffindors thought there had been some mistake when they looked at the hourglass, and saw that Gryffindor had just lost 250 points overnight. Then they heard about what had happened, and they were very angry with Harry, Hermione, Mabel, Pacifica, and Neville. Whenever they weren't ignoring them, they were throwing insults at them. The Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's were also really upset, they were hoping that Slytherin wouldn't win the house cup for once. The Slytherin's were actually respecting them, for the wrong reasons. They were thanking them for giving Slytherin an easy win.
Ron and Dipper had made a full recovery at this time, and were now with the rest of the group in the library. Nicole Timor was actually helping them study for their end of year exams. She was one of the very few Slytherin's, who wasn't being an outright jerk. "They'll get over it eventually, Fred and George have played several tricks, and got points taken away loads of times" said Ron. "I doubt they ever lost 250 points in one go" said Harry. "While I don't agree with your actions last night, I really feel as though the punishment doesn't fit the crime" said Nicole. "You each lost 50 points, and Malfoy only lost 20". "Either Slytherin should be docked 30 more points, or Gryffindor should be given 150." "I've done it six years in a row, and I don't want to do it seven." "It would just be an unfair win."
Harry felt so ashamed, he told Oliver Wood he wanted to resign from the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "Absolutely not Potter, how else are we going to make up some of the points you lost?" said Wood. During practices, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet didn't refer to Harry by name and simply just called him, the seeker. Their mood wan't even lightened by Hufflepuff beating Slytherin in the following match.
During breakfast next morning, they received a note from Professor McGonagall, telling them that their detention would be happening at 11:00 in the entrance hall.
Harry, Hermione, Mabel, Pacifica, Neville, and Draco came to the entrance wall, where Filch was waiting for them. Filch then led them across the grounds. "I miss the old punishments" he said. "Back in my day, you'd be hung by your wrists in the dungeons, God I miss the screaming."
They stopped walking when they got to Hagrid's hut. "You'll be serving detention with Hagrid tonight" said Filch. Hagrid then stepped out of his hut, with a crossbow and some arrows. "What we'll be doing is very dangerous, we'll be going into the forest" he said. "But students aren't allowed in there" said Pacifica. "They make an exception for punishments" said Hagrid. "Absolutely not, it's too dangerous, i'm not going in there" said Malfoy. "You are if you wanna stay in Hogwarts, ye broke the rules and now yer payin the price" said Hagrid. "If you ain't goin in there, you can get go pack to the castle and pack your stuff."
He then led them into the forest, with Fang following behind them, and they stopped in front of a large puddle of silvery liquid. "That there is unicorn blood, some thing has been attackin the unicorns" said Hagrid. "One died just last Wednesday, and one recently just got hurt real bad." "We need to find that hurt unicorn, and probably put it out of it's misery." "We'll be splittin up, Harry Hermione and Mabel will come with be, Pacifica will be goin with Neville and Draco." "Then I get fang" said Draco. "Fine, just so you know, he's a bloody coward" said Hagrid. "If you see the unicorn, shoot green sparks out of yer wand." "If yer in trouble, shoot red sparks." They then split up.
Mabel was absolutely horrified at what they were doing, as she had several stuffed unicorns back in Piedmont. It didn't help the fact that her brother wasn't here for her, nor was her crush, so she had to rely on Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid for comfort.
Pacifica was not having a good time with Neville and Malfoy. Knowing what her parents were going to do when they found out she lost the house cup, she couldn't imagine what curses they were going to put on her. "I have a feeling that we're going to die in this forest" said Neville. "Better Malfoy than the two of us" said Pacifica. Neville then let out a high pitched squeal, and shot red sparks from his wand. The other group quickly came, and were disappointed at what the emergency was. "Nothing happened, Malfoy just thought it necessary to scare Neville and make him think he was being attacked" said Pacifica. "We're not having very good luck either, all we found were some centaurs who wouldn't shut up about mars" said Mabel. "That's it, Harry and Neville are tradin places" said Hagrid.
Harry, Pacifica, and Draco were now walking together. Seeing that Fang was absolutely horrified, Pacifica began petting him. Now she was even more upset, no way would her parents ever let her have her own pet. As they got deeper into the forest, they could see lots of blood on the trees, as if the unicorn had been thrashing about. They finally stopped when they found the bright white unicorn, lying on the ground dead. Things began to look bad, when a hooded figure bent down towards the unicorn, and began drinking it's blood through it's wood. Malfoy screamed and ran off, with Fang following him. The hooded creature then looked up, and was now facing Harry and Pacifica. Unicorn blood was dribbling from it's mouth. Harry froze out of fear, and began holding his scar in pain. The creature got closer to them, and Pacifica quickly raised her wand. "FLIPENDO!" she shouted. The hooded creature was knocked backwards, and was then chased away by what looked like a combination between a man and a horse. The pain in Harry's forehead was too much, and he fell over. "You two had better get back to Hagrid, the forest is not safe at this time" said the centaur. "My name if Firenze, and I can give you a ride back to Hagrid."
Before they could take off, Firenze got into an argument with two other centaurs, about helping out humans. After walking through the forest a bit, Harry asked Firenze a question. "What was that thing trying to attack us?" "Do you know what unicorn blood is used for"? asked Firenze. "I found out when I was eight, when my dad threatened to feed it to me" said Pacifica. "Unicorn blood can keep someone alive, even if they are a millisecond from death." "But the moment the blood touches your lips, you will have a half life, a cursed life forever." "I feel as though dying would be the better option, then you won't have to be cursed" said Harry. "Do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?" asked Firenze. "The philosopher's stone" said Harry. "The one who tried to attack you, wants to use the stone to live forever, and return to the power it once had over a decade ago" said Firenze. The situation finally hit Harry and Pacifica, they were nearly killed by Voldemort himself.
It wasn't long before Hagrid arrived, followed by Hermione and Mabel. "Are you two alright"? asked Hermione. "We're fine" said Pacifica. "The dead unicorn is just beyond that clearing" said Harry. Hagrid then went over to investigate.
When they all finally made it back up to the common room, Harry and Pacifica told them everything that happened. Dipper was horrified that his sister was in the forest with you know who, that he began crying while hugging her. "Thanks for casting that knock-back jinx on him back there Pacifica, you really saved my life" said Harry. "Had I known who I was casting it on, I would have frozen up in fear" said Pacifica. "Now the situation in really bad, Snape isn't trying to steal the stone for himself, he's trying to bring Voldemort back to full power" said Harry. "Stop saying that name" said Ron. "You're scaring us" said Dipper. "Fear of the name, only increases fear of the thing itself" said Pacifica. "This is really bad, Voldemort's coming back, and he's going to kill us all" said Harry. "He wouldn't dare try to attack us with Dumbledore as headmaster" said Hermione. "Dumbledore was the only wizard that you know who ever feared."
When Harry got into his bed, he found his invisibility cloak underneath of him. Attached to it was a note that said, just in case. Over in the girls dormitory, Mabel had tears in her eyes as she was holding onto Posy. She was horrified at what was happening, and was hanging onto her cat for dear life.
Authors note: The reason why most of the students aren't giving Dipper any crap for losing 50 points, is because they truly despise Snape, and feel as though they got what he deserved.
As always if you have a suggestion or a prediction for a future chapter, feel free to let me know in a review.
Thank you for reading and please have a great day.