So... I did not get a bonus upload in this week... but that just means y'all get a Double Feature Friday!
Not Potter and the Stupid Stone
Chapter 21
Laura
After parting our separate ways, the boys instantly began to fuss. The two bickered over everything – even the stupidest topics.
"From the looks of it, Draco," Harry sneered. "I would say you're scared."
"Scared, Potter?" Draco scoffed, "as if."
"Deny it, but we're in the Forbidden Forest." Harry said, dubiously, "wouldn't shock me that you would be scared."
"Seems like your fear is being filter into accusing me of being scared." He revolted.
Tired of the pitiful arguing, I wandered off. Fed up, I crouched behind a tree, still hearing their bickering in the distance. They hadn't noticed my disappearance, yet, but, momentarily, I let out a deathly shriek.
Not far off, I listened to their responses.
"What was that?" Draco stammered.
"The scream?" Harry asked, fear in his voice.
"Where'd Fawley go?" Draco asked, noticing my disappearance.
"Laura!" Harry shouted.
Laughing between tightly closed lips, yet feeling guilty for their anxiety, I reappeared.
"I'm here." I said, nonchalantly.
"What happened?" Draco questioned.
"Oh," I replied, "nothing."
"Then why did you scream, like that?!" Harry snapped. "You scared us!"
"Just to stop you two from bickering." I retorted, "clearly, I'm superior to your arguments."
"You?" Draco muttered, "I was more concerned for myself, honestly.
"Sheesh," Harry said, ignoring his comment, directing his annoyance onto me. "You didn't have to stop it that way..."
"Well, it worked," I retorted, "right?"
"Fair enough." Harry sighed, before suddenly coming to a stop. "Wait-"
On the ground, a majestic white creature was sitting in a large pool of a bright silver, gleaming, substance. Inching closer, I could tell, it was the unicorn, all right, and it was dead. I stared at, I had never seen such a beautiful creature, yet such a sad outcome had befallen it.
Harry also took one step forward, coming closer to the unicorn, when the sound of slithering made him freeze in place. One of the bushes nearby rustled, then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground. Like some huge stalking beast, it drew itself closer. Harry, Draco, myself and Fang stood, transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound within the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.
A petrified scream left Draco's mouth, as he and Fang bolted. The hooded figure then took a second to look up. It's undead, jerking movements bringing terror to my veins, as it's piercing red eyes met Harry's. It swiftly hovered closer to him, reaching for him with a primal need. Harry, frozen with fear, clutched his forehead and fell onto his knees, a sharp pain seemingly ripping through his body, rendering him useless. Subject to the creature.
I quickly realized that this was up to me. Harry was... out of it, to say the least. No time to ponder anything, I have to save Harry. I took a deep breath, raising my hand to the sky, steadily, and doing the next right thing. Red sparks shot out of my wand, but the creature still seemed to be encroaching on Harry. I tried again, someone had to come.
"Is anyone there?!" I cried out, "please! Someone! HELP!"
Moments later, the clicking of hooves galloped nearby, and something jumped out of the forest Leaping over me, throwing itself against the figure. The figure seemed shocked, in its ghostly state, and quickly turned, vanishing into the dense wood, away from sight. Rushing over to Harry, I sat down, as he went unconscious. Dead faint, kind of ironic. For a moment I felt a sense of stupid pride, gender stereotype broken, girl saves boy. The voice of the creature who had saved Harry brought me back to reality.
"Is he okay?" The creature, who I only assumed to be a centaur, asked.
"For now, yes." I said, checking his pulse. "I think he may just be passed out. Thank you so much, though! I honestly don't know what what've happened if you hadn't stepped in."
"No problem." He said, nodding, "you two must leave, now. The forest is not safe now – especially for the boy."
"Of course." I agreed, desperate to leave. "I just need Harry to wake up..."
"Lift him up to ride." The centaur beckoned, leaning down., "I'll see if I can get someone to give you a ride, as well."
Attempting to lift Harry's limp, unconscious body was hard. First, I shook him a little, hoping he might wake up, it only seemed to make him half unconscious, good enough. I guided him to the centaur and attempted to hoist him over the creature's back. Picking him up from below the knee, sitting him on my shoulder, and then shoving him onto the centaur. My practically throwing him onto the centaur seemed to wake him, as he sat up, looking around, quite confused, and a little scared, to be waking up, finding himself on the back of a half horse, half man creature.
"W-what happened?" Harry stammered.
"Just hold on for now, Harry." I replied. "We need to leave the forest. This centaur... um," I froze.
"My name's Firenze." He said, seemingly reading my thoughts.
"Firenze," I corrected, "offered to help. He was the one who saved you."
Suddenly, from some trees nearby, the rustling and gallops of more centaurs came, as two came bursting out of the forest and into our clearing.
"Firenze, what are you doing?!" The first centaur yelled, "you have a human on your back?! Have you no shame?! Are you just a common mule?"
"Do you even realize who this is?" Firenze questioned, explaining himself. "This is the Harry Potter boy. The faster he and his friend leaves this forest, the better."
"What have you been telling these two?" The centaur scolded, "remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"
Suddenly, the other centaur chimed in, "I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best."
"For the best!" He laughed, "Ronan, what is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"
"Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze asked, turning his attention to Harry and I. "Miss. Fawley, you're riding with Mr. Potter." He said, leaning down. I was shocked he knew my name already, as he refocused the conversation to the two centaurs." Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."
Firenze then set off, galloping through the trees with the two us on his back.
"Why was Bane so angry?" Harry asked.
"What is that thing you saved us from?" I followed.
"Do you know what Unicorn blood is used for?" He replied, in question.
"No," I answered, "we haven't covered it in potions yet."
"That is because it is a monstrous thing to kill a unicorn." Firenze shook his head. "Its blood will keep you alive, yes, no matter what. But at what cost? It is immoral to slay such a poor defenseless thing, so, from the moment the blood touches your lips, you will lead a half-life. A cursed life."
"Who would be so desperate?" Harry wondered, aloud.
"At that point, wouldn't death be better?" I asked, pondering what a cursed life would hold.
"It would be. That is, unless you are waiting for something else." He whispered, "another liquid you could drink to strengthen and ensure your life. Something that will keep you alive forever. Something in your very school."
"The Sorcerer's Stone," Harry exclaimed, "the elixir of life!"
"Of course," I said, angry for not thinking of it first. "But... who?"
"Can you think of no one?" Firenze said, merely annoyed at our ignorance. "No one who has been longing to come back for, say, eleven years?"
Just then, Hermione and Noel came bursting through the trees.
"Laura! Harry!" Hermione shouted, "are you alright? When we saw Malfoy, and then the sparks... I just couldn't imagine."
"This is where I leave you." Firenze said, nodded me goodbye. He turned, "good luck, Harry Potter."
Firenze bent down to let us off of his back and the galloped away into the trees and the settling fog.
"What did he mean by good luck?" Noel questioned.
"Tell you later." Harry said, looking at me with an eyebrow raised.
