Hogwarts castle was filled with bugs, but it was nothing to the explosion of life in the forest. I could almost feel the life all around me; the sheer weight of the bugs was something that I hadn't felt in a long time.
The trees were massive and old. We had old trees in Brockton Bay, but they tended to be isolated, surrounded by younger trees. Here, every tree was old, and most of them were massive and weather beaten. I could see many different kinds of trees; beech, oak, pine, sycamore, yew...it made me wonder if this was one of the places Wizards harvested their wand materials from. I didn't see any gouges on the trees, not in the limited light that was available.
The undergrowth was thick, seeming almost impassible off the path. There were thorns and knotgrass to both sides of us. I didn't like it; it funnelled us into a single line, and anything that could actually move through the underbrush would be able to ambush us with impunity.
I'd know beforehand, but if it was something really dangerous, it might not make a difference.
Everyone had their wands out, all of them lit and I kept a careful eye on the students behind me. I had bugs on every one of the others just in case one of them should turn and try to attack me. I doubted that they would, not with Hagrid right there, but it would also be useful if anyone got lost.
It would be very easy to get lost here; there were massive tree trunks, some of which interesected the path, and while you were watching your footing, you could easily lose sight of the trail. I walked assuredly, stepping over roots without even looking.
I heard Draco stumbling from behind me.
"You must have eyes like a cat," he muttered.
I ignored him, and I checked ahead of us for any dangers. Even without my bug sense I would have been able to tell things were safe; there were sounds of insects everywhere. It was when things got quiet that you had to worry. If the birds and insects sensed something dangerous, they had the sense to hide.
It seemed as though we walked forever, although it was most likely just half an hour. I found myself tense, waiting for one of the Slytherins to turn and attack me even though I rationally knew that it was unlikely.
We passed through several splittings of the trail; getting separated from Hagrid would be disastrous, because I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to find my way out of here.
Moonlight shone through the canopy at times, and it gave the entire forest an eerie look, even though it was beautiful in its own way.
None of the Slytherins complained, most likely because none of them wanted to look weak in front of their peers. Or maybe they were afraid of Hagrid; I hadn't heard about him being dangerous, other than his size, but obviously I'd missed some things.
We reached a clearing in the forest, and I was the first to notice movement in the darkness. Even the bugs were having trouble seeing in parts of the undergrowth, although they compensated with other senses.
I saw a form imove n the darkness. Hagrid tensed.
It took me a moment to recognize it, even with my bug senses; it was a man with the body of a horse. A centuar; I'd heard there were some in the forest, but I'd never seen one.
"Hagrid," the centaur said neutrally.
"Ronan," Hagrid said. "Good ter see ya."
"Pluto is in transition," the Centaur said. "Change is coming."
"Right," Hagrid said. He didn't sound like he knew what the centaur was talking about; neither did I.
Glancing over at Draco, I noticed that he seemed trouble. Maybe he put greater store in this astrology stuff than I did? Maybe astronomy class gave some insight into the future; yet from what I'd heard the divination classes at Hogwarts used tea leaves instead of telescopes. It was very perplaxing.
"Have you seen the mare?" Hagrid asked.
"She's in the south glen, two clearings to the east," the centaur said. "It is a difficult birth."
"We'll hurry up then," Hagrid said.
As we walked past the centaur, I thought I saw him staring at me specifically, although it was possible that it was a trick of the light.
We did indeed pick up the pace, and it wasn't long at all before I saw the silhouette of Hagrid hold up his hand.
"There's a whole herd of them up ahead," he said. "And they can get a little tetchy when they are protecting a mother that's foaling. I want everybody to move slowly, and don't make any moves that could be interpreted as aggressive. I don' want to explain to yer parents why you died with a unicorn horn in your chest."
I heard a gasp from Hestia Carrow up ahead, and then I stepped out into the clearing.
I'd been busy looking behind us and to the sides, so the sight of the unicorn herd in the moonlight took me by surprise. I found my breath catch in my chest as I saw them running around in the middle of the glade in the moonlight.
It was easy for me to forget, sometimes, the child that I'd once been. But I'd had the Unicorn Trapper Keepers that all the other girls had, and I'd had the posters on my walls. When I'd really been eleven, I'd dreamed of unicorns when I wasn't dreaming of Alexandria, and now that they were really here, something in my chest felt tight.
They were stunning.
The herd was poetry in motion, a river of white so beautiful that it made my heart ache. I couldn't catch my breath as I stared at them, and I found that I wanted to do nothing else but stand there forever.
It made the excitement I'd felt when I'd first seen Hogwarts castle pale in comparison. This was the kind of magic I'd always dreamed of... not just a tool, and not a weapon, but sheer wonder.
Draco shoved me a little from behind, and the spell was broken. I let myself breathe, and I steeped aside, and watched as he took sight of the Unicorns.
For a moment, I saw a look of wonder on his face as well, but he saw me watching, and his face tightened.
"Stupid horses," he said, but it didn't sound like his heart was in it. If it had just been a single unicorn during the light of day, he probably could have dismissed it like it was just another animal, but this was a herd of thirty, and the moonlight gave them an unearthly beauty.
"If there's any blood, don't put it in yer mouth," Hagrid said. "I wouldn't think I'd have to tell you that, but there's always one... yer cursed for life if you do that. That means you wash yer hands and yer wand after ye get through with this, with good magic."
"You make it sound like we're going to put our fist up inside the thing," Terence Higgs said.
"If yer lucky, ye just might. It'll probably be one of the girls, though. They get nervous around the boys," Hagrid said.
He gestured toward me and Hestia Carrow.
"We're gonna see if they'll accept ye," he said. "If they do, ye'll help me with the foal. I've been workin with em for their entire lives, and they still sometimes take better to a young girl."
Turning to the boys, he said, "I wouldn't get near to the herd. Stay here and call out if you see anything dangerous. If they think you're trying to hurt the mare they can get dangerous."
"So we're just going to stand around?" Draco asked.
"Better than going in the middle of that," Terence muttered. "They'd turn us into pincushions."
I was going to get to actually touch one of them? They seemed too perfect to touch, ethereal, even incandescent. It was like a dream, and the moment I reached out my hand it would all be over.
Suddenly I felt a moment of horror. What if they really could read the content of a person's soul? I'd done terrible things in the past, from the time I was fifteen onwards. I'd killed a lot of people. I'd killed a baby. I'd stolen people's free will, and I hadn't even hesitated.
Sure, I'd done it to save humanity, but the kinds of things I'd done tended to stain the soul. Was I even still a good person, had I ever been? Most of the time I ignored questions like that; I escaped the pain by focusing on what was in front of me. But here? Now?
I felt Hagrid's hand on my shoulder.
"I'm gonna be with ye;" he said. "And if there's danger, get behind me. I'll protect ye."
Physical danger wasn't what I was worried about. Being rejected by this, the culmination of my childhood dreams... I wasn't sure I could stand the crushing disappointment.
"She's afraid she's too evil," Terence Higgs said, knowingly.
I blinked, and looked back at him. He smirked, but there was something in his expression that bothered me, a sort of sympathy that wasn't anything at all like I'd ever expected to see on a Slytherin face.
He'd had thoughts like that himself; that was the only way he'd be able to understand what I was feeling. Did that mean that he really thought he as evil, or did that mean that he wasn't because he was worried about it?
"Nonsense," Hagrid said.
He pushed me forward.
The herd stopped, and they turnd to stare at us. I saw a sea of horns pointed in my direction, and I forced myself to stay loose. Animals could sense fear, and while I wasn't afraid of them, I was afraid of their judgement.
As I slowly stepped forward, the air felt leaden and still. My stomach was tied up in knots. As far as I knew, these were just stupid animals. Did it really mean anything if they rejected me and I had to stay back with the boys?
Somehow it did. It felt like I was being judged by a universe that didn't care about all the good I had done, only the bad.
I walked forward slowly, and I felt Hestia Carrow behind me. She put her hand on my shoulder, and her hand tightened reassuringly. I could see Hagrid putting his hand on hers shoulder through my bugs' vision.
The strange thing was that not a single bug was on any of the Unicorns. Not one mite, not one flea not a single fly. It was as though they were so pure that even the bugs knew that they were inviolate.
I could have probably forced a bug onto one of them, but I found that I didn't want to. It would have felt like a desecration.
Instead I continued to walk forward. The unicorns stared at me, and for a moment I thought they were going to lunge forward, to attack me like the monster I sometimes felt that I was.
One unicorn was larger than all the others; presumably he was the Stallion of the herd. He stepped forward and for a moment I thought he was going to try to spear me.
Instead he lowered his head, and I reached up and I touched his face. I felt a strange wetness on my eyes; I wasn't sure what it was, but I ignored it. I could have stood like that forever, but I heard Hagrid say, "The mare needs us, girl."
I stepped around the stallion, and I saw that the herd had opened before us, leaving space to walk between them. As I walked past the unicorns, I reached up and touched their flanks. They were softer than anything I'd ever touched in my life.
There was a mare lying in the middle of the clearing. Her sides were heaving and she was lying on her side. Of all the unicorns she was the most beautiful, and I found my hands trembling as I dropped to my knees beside her. There was a silvery, luminescent blood staining her hindquarters, which probably wasn't a good sign.
I reached out cautiously, and I put my hand on her flank. She was warm, and I felt a jolt of something passing through me as I touched her.
Her side moved convulsively. If felt like she was having trouble breathing.
Carefully, I said, "I think she's having a contraction."
"She had problems with the last foaling, which is why we've been keeping an eye on her," Hagrid said.
This was something outside my experience. In Chicago as a Ward, I'd never had to assist in birthing a baby, although there had been other Wards who had. Generally, there had always been someone on the other end of the communicator who would be able to help you through it.
I'd had basic instruction in what to do, of course; it was part of our training as heroes. That had been training in what to do with a human childbirth, though. I had no idea what to do with a horse birth, much less in the birth of a magical creature.
"She's startin to push it out," Hagrid said to Hestia, "But she's havin trouble. The hooves will come out first, but if ye see them bottom sides up, that means the foal is backwards or upside down and we'll have to turn her."
"What do you want me to do?" I asked.
He reached into his pocket, and pulled out something that looked like berries.
Hagrid handed them to me. "I want ye to try to feed these to her, and try to keep her calm. Watch her horn; this is going to hurt her, and she might get aggressive."
"What is this?" I asked.
"Berries soaked in calming potion," Hagrid said. "It won't hurt the foal, and it'll help her keep from panicking. Some will probably soak through your skin, but it won't hurt ye any."
He could have told me that before he'd put it in my bare hand. I grimaced, but I didn't complain. There was too much going on right now.
He gestured toward Hestia.
"Now you get to get yer hands dirty. Remember what I said about washing em."
The girl grimaced, but she kneeled down behind the Unicorn obediently.
"Watch her hooves," Hagrid said. "She might kick."
I found myself at the front of the unicorn, staring into her eyes. I carefully reached out, berries in hand. I kept my hand out flat and open so that she could lip the berries from my hand.
For the next thirty minutes, I simply stared into her eyes and ran my hand gently down her neck. I heard Hagrid barking instructions to Hestia, and there was worry in his voice.
Finally, I heard Hagrid say, "Hold her now; this is gonna be tricky."
I nodded, and I tightened my grip on the Unicorn's head. She struggled a little, but it was a moment before I saw something moving on Hagrid's end.
It wasn't a pure white like the other Unicorns, or even silver like some of the foals. It was of the purest gold, and it had eyes that seemed as large as the universe.
I was the first thing it saw as it peered around the flanks of its mother, and it stared at me as though it loved me, as though I was the most wonderful thing that it had ever seen.
Of course, I was the only thing it had ever seen, but I couldn't find the energy to be cynical right now. All I could do is stare at it for the next several minutes.
It finally rose to its feet on staggering legs, and it took a couple of steps toward me.
Hagrid spoke for the first time in several minutes to Hestia.
"The foal is all right, but the mother isn't out of the woods. I need you kids to head back to the castle; have Madam Pomprey come back here; she'll be able to help us keep the old gal alive."
I stared at him.
"Isn't there some magical way for you to summon her?" I asked.
"Don't have my wand," he said. "And I never was much of a wizard anyway. One of the older boys will be able to find his way back. Now hurry. Hestia here is gonna stay and help me."
I felt curiously empty as I slowly moved the Unicorn's head from my knee and set it on the soft loam of the forest floor. There was a look in her eye that I sisn't like; it almost seemed like one of hopeless resignation, as though she knew that she was going to die.
Would her foal even survive witrhout its mother?
Silently, I rose to my feet, and I headed back toward the others.
"I couldn't see anything," Draco complained. "All we'vbe done is stand around all night and stare at a bunch of horses."
"Hagrid says we need to go ang get Madam Pomprey," I said. "The Mare isn't doing very well."
"He wants us to go into the Forest by ourselves?" Draco asked. He looked like his eyes were about to bug out.
"Sooner we get out of here, the better," Terence said. "Better if all of us go together instead of one or two of us... it'll be harder for something to pick us off."
I nodded.
Apparently some Slytherins had some sense.
"All right, let's go," I said.