"You're in a good mood tonight." Ron huffed as they walked towards the forest.
Taking a deep breath, Heri rolled his neck and looked up to the resplendent moon. It was a good night for a walk in the forest: there was something twisted and unnatural disturbing the local wildlife – it looked promising.
"Midnight; moonlight; surrounded by death." Heri replied with something akin to nostalgia in his voice. Everyone stopped to look questioningly.
"Ain't no one died yet, lad." Filch spat as he turned back to locate Hagrid. For a moment he thought he heard the Addams boy reply 'not yet', but he was experienced enough to know that the night played its tricks on the mind and so ignored it. He was used to being the one to scare students, not the other way around. "It's a pity they let the old punishments die out… time was you lot would be hanging in chains for the next few days." He gave them an eerie smile. "I still keep them well oiled, just in case." He started to revel in his victory as he looked at the pale, wide eyed face of Longbottom, but then he caught the excited gleam in Addams' eye.
"Do you now?" The asked in a manner that made the caretaker want to deny it. He'd never known a question of curiosity to sound so threatening. Thankfully the large group reached Hagrid before he had time to respond.
Hagrid, himself, appeared to still be in mourning over the loss of his beloved dragon, and were Herido a more compassionate soul, he could sympathise completely, as it were he ignored the man, gazing past him instead to try and discern what caused the forest to seem so very quiet tonight. As he looked out into the darkness he couldn't sense a thing. Very odd.
Draco scowled at the ground. He'd long since stopped bemoaning how insulting this was to his pride as a Malfoy as it did no good at all. He would never understand Heri's reasoning when it came to detention. He'd said that if you were caught, you had to be ready to face the consequences. Bah! That was all well and good, but on this occasion they were doing something to be praised, not punished! Really, he couldn't believe he'd come to be in this situation from being so selfless. He just hoped his godfather wasn't reporting all this back to Malfoy senior.
A few nights prior, they had all been caught by Snape sneaking into the castle a few short hours before sunrise. Draco didn't know what the disgusting half-breed had done to fall from Herido's good graces, but it turned out that the withdrawal of his favour didn't extend to the man/beast's animals and Heri had eventually agreed with the Weasleys' ridiculous plan to smuggle his dragon out of Hogwarts before it could be discovered by those less kindly disposed.
If he had to be rational, he supposed it was a good thing that Snape was the one to discover them out of bed – one night's detention and no questions asked was getting off easy and he knew it, but still, all the purebloods present at least agreed that going hunting in the forest was beneath them.
Still another thing occurred to Draco as the half-giant prattled on about unicorns; he wasn't particularly bothered about heading into the Forbidden Forest. A few months ago he would have been terrified by the prospect, even with so many friends around him. But no, now he was actually looking forward to it. He'd grown stronger since meeting Herido Addams, so much so that he hardly recognized the boy who's kissed his mother goodbye at the end of summer, though some things remained. He was still his father's son.
During the first weeks of September, he'd written almost daily updates to his father, eager and enthusiastic to share how close he was getting to Addams and how annoying it was to have to play nice with Hermione, but since and with the exception of the events of Halloween, he'd been avoiding the man as much as possible. Even during Christmas break, he'd only told him the bare minimum: that he, Blaise, Daphne and Herido were tight, but nothing of the Gryffindors or Hermione. He'd made sure to spend a large portion of the holiday away from home, and hell would freeze over before he shared where he'd spent so many of those days.
And of course, he mentioned nothing of the bits of dark magic the group had been learning. After killing the centaur, he'd had something of a crisis of conscience and reached out to his mother, but he'd come through that surprisingly quickly and as far as he knew she hadn't broken his confidence. His father was already pressing him to invite Heri and his family over so they could be introduced, he couldn't imagine how persistent the man would get if he discovered he was being helped in the dark arts by an Addams. Sometimes he felt like he was being torn between his loyalties to his father and to his friends. Sometimes he felt like he was protecting Herido from his father's manipulations, but usually he felt like he was protecting his father from, well, Herido.
Draco was violently pulled from his thoughts as a chain pulled taut around his ankle, sending him flying onto his back before being dragged along the rough ground. It took him a moment to recover his breath before he could follow the chain back to George's wand, the boy himself pulling him into the forest with a grin.
"Oh, looks like he's back with us!" The red head teased. Ok, he supposed he had been a little lost in thought for a moment there.
He scowled even as he was pulled along and brought out his own wand. He only knew one rudimentary cutting spell. He didn't think it was strong enough to break the chain so he aimed it right at George's wand hand. Fred was quick to step in with a shield, which saved his twin's hand, but forced him to relinquish control of the spell holding Draco. As soon as he was free the blonde raised his wand to the pair, his dark smile promising retribution. They took one look at each other and then shouted 'run!' before darting into the shadows. Undeterred, he gave chase.
"Get back here!"
With his own smile, Blaise pulled out his wand and set out after them.
"I have your back, Draco!" He cried. Two on two was only fair after all. He fired a spell at Fred, just as he disappeared behind a tree, the bark of which was left boiling. Ron looked at the ruined bark in horror and joined the fray.
"Hey!" He called. "Leave them alone!" And with that he too disappeared from sight.
"'Ey!" Ey!" Hagrid called, fearful to have so many children running about the forest while some unknown foe was lurking nearby. "You lot come back 'ere!"
"Honestly!" Hermione shook her head. "They're like a group of children."
"Boys will be boys." Daphne shrugged, though she could only imagine the look on Mrs Malfoy and Zabini's face if they could see their sons now.
"Well, it's tiresome." Hermione insisted.
As they were talking, Blaise's spell had eaten its way through the tree trunk and the sycamore began a slow tumble to the ground, unsettling the resting birds within. As the small flock took to the sky with cries loud enough to rouse the other sleeping residents of the forest, a stray shot came from within the darkness and hit Hermione square in the face.
"Oh 'Mione, that's a fine look." Herido bit his lip to supress his laughter, but it was a lost cause and when she turned to Daphne for support, the blonde couldn't stop her own breakdown. The spell had obviously been from one of the twins, and had transformed Hermione's nose into that of an elephant seal.
Forgetting all about her supposed maturity, she let out a cry of frustration and charged into the forest for her own revenge, lifting her wand to let out a flurry of tiny birds, which promptly burst into flames as they set out to find their targets.
Hagrid immediately set off after her, rather outraged at the damage that was being done to the forest. Heri thought the staff had become rather complacent – leaving this man alone with so many 'troublemakers'.
Before Hagrid could reach the forest however, he suddenly stopped, his feet frozen as though nailed to the ground beneath him. Try as he might they wouldn't shift an inch.
"Hagrid, just let them be." Heri said, gaining the man's attention.
"I can't." As if to make his point, a small explosion occurred somewhere not far from them. "And don't think I don't know that those last few spells were dark! You can't go around…" The dark look on Heri's face made him come up short. He couldn't move and it was obvious that things could get really bad for him really quickly.
"Hagrid," Heri started with an imperious seriousness, "You need to give us this." He stared down at the boy and could feel the all the cold of the night. No, it was more than that. It was like the all-consuming dread you feel when you walk through a graveyard at midnight. When he tried to respond, his voice caught in his throat, but Heri spoke again before he could have anyway. "Believe me." It sounded like a promise. And really it was, for Heri only needed the slightest reason to take out his former friend. Hagrid nodded, suspecting that he was walking on a knife-edge, about to fall off. For a few moments Heri just stared, cold sweat clinging to Hagrid like a death shroud, until the boy's face suddenly broke into a huge smirk. "Great, then let's go unicorn-hunter hunting!"
The remaining four finally made their own way into the forest, but Hagrid quickly offered to check down a different path, leaving Heri, Daphne and Neville alone. The forest was certainly more alive than it had been half an hour before. Bird sang in frustration as they continued to be disturbed by random shouts and bangs. At one point Heri smiled when he heard one of the Weasley twins making werewolf calls. They really were a blast.
Voldemort could hear the racket being made as he greedily drank from the dying creature. He absolutely deplored that he'd been reduced to this, but secretly thought this unicorn blood was damn good. It was probably the reason drinking it held such dire consequences; otherwise such a delicacy would have seen them extinct by now. Maybe it was just down to the fact he was disembodied.
He clenched his teeth as he heard them getting closer. Tonight's meal had been ruined entirely. If only he had a body he could teach these children some manners. Oh well, not long now, he thought.
Heri froze as he stepped onto the crisp ground of a moon kissed hollow. They had found the thing that was hurting the unicorns, and it was a… Shade? He honestly didn't know. He'd never met an unfriendly Shade, though that might have had more to do with the respect his family name demanded. This thing though… it was pernicious, deadly. And as soon as he glanced up he could feel the power radiating off it. He'd never known a Shade like it and had to wander if it was something different altogether.
For the first time in a long time he wasn't entirely sure how he should be attacking this thing if it proved to be unfriendly. It was rather exciting.
He ignored the sounds of his friends as they played not too far away: 'you absolute arse', 'that's my head, you know? It's not detachable!', 'you look better that way!'
"How do you do?" Heri finally said, his guard was fully raised, but it never hurt to be polite. The Shade stood to its full height as the creature at its feet (?), breathed its last.
He couldn't imagine the glittering sliver substance tasted very good, the Shade was probably only drinking it for the curse. He remembered he had something that might take the edge off.
"Oh," He exclaimed, his classmates staying still as statues as he took a step forward. "I'm sure I have Shade snacks in here somewhere." He dug into his top pocket and pulled out a stick of dynamite, before shaking his head and tossing it away. Next came the sun bleached femur from a human male and he let out a gentle 'oops' before tossing that too. He didn't know that was in there and had blamed Pugsley when uncle Droop's thigh had gone missing. Oh well, he was looking for asphodel and wormwood, not family members. He paused for a moment to consider the possibility that he'd been smoking it, but soon dismissed the thought and continued his search. Next came a bag of unmixed sulphur and he remembered that testing the strength of the castle walls had been on his to-do list for a while now.
He thought he'd finally found what he was looking for, but was distracted when Neville spoke up.
"H, Heri?" The terrified Gryffindor looked as though he were about to faint as he raised his wand. Heri looked back round to see that the Shade had moved much closer during his search. Too close for comfort.
Voldemort wanted to laugh as the Longbottom boy threatened him. A bigger part of him though was furious that the pathetic whelp would dare raise his wand to the great Lord Voldemort and he let that rage guide him.
Everything seemed to happen at once after that.
As the Shade lunged forward, a pain like nothing Heri had felt before exploded in his head. It was so intense he was temporarily blinded, bright white lights expanding continually before his eyes. He squeezed his head as he attempted to focus on his breathing to ground him and give him control of his body once more. He'd found his way through pain before, at least enough to fight. This was just another pain; he just needed a minute…
"Heri!" Daphne cried in horror as she watched the boy she thought to be indestructible fall to the ground. Well, he managed to catch himself before he crumpled completely, but it was still disconcerting. She dived in front of him to shield him from the oncoming… thing, but at the same time tortured cries came from above and several of the displaced birds fell to the ground, having caught fire at some point. One landed in Heri's discard pile.
An explosion larger than any so far this night sent Daphne to the far side of the hollow, and as pain ripped through what was surely a broken arm she tried to make her eyes focus. She couldn't hear clearly; it felt like her head was in a box and she worried she'd been deafened, but just as this thought started taking route, all her senses returned twofold. She shook her head and looked up to see the reassuring grin of Herido Addams, his hand extended to help her up. She didn't waste time wondering how he had escaped the blast.
Once the smoke cleared it became obvious that the creature was gone, and the eruption had gathered everyone to the clearing. She looked across to see Draco and Fred holding Neville, who had a nasty looking cut on his head, upright.
Hagrid arrived a second later, loud as ever as he tried to make sure everyone was ok. The children though ignored him. They looked expectantly to Heri, waiting for him to set the tone of what was going to happen next.
He helped Daphne towards the others and his grin broke to reflect an excitement that bordered on mania.
"Holy shit." Was apparently his conclusion. He sent the briefest of glimpses at Hagrid before looking back to the others and nodding toward the castle.
When Neville awoke later that day, he took a moment to focus on the faces of his friends. They were scattered about the room, most lounging on hospital beds. He'd always heard that Mme Pomfrey didn't like malingerers, but from what he could tell, Daphne and Herido were the only others injured, the others were just hanging around.
"He lives!" One of the twins cried with flourish when he noticed the Gryffindor was awake. Soon everyone was crowded around his bed. He'd felt acceptance from these students since that night in Gryffindor Tower, but it was only now that he looked at them all, obviously relieved that he was ok, that he truly realised that they were his friends, and the best friends he'd even had.
He remembered what had happened last night and let out a laugh. It had been an uncanny chain of events to say the least.
"You are insanely lucky!" He told Herido, who smirked back at him, bandage around his head but otherwise looking fine.
"I've been told." Heri tried to look thoughtful, but was fooling no one: he was as confident as ever. "Lady Luck does seem to favour us Addams'."
"What was that, last night?" Neville had to know. Whatever it was, he didn't want to ever deal with it again. Hermione, nose back to normal, stepped up to respond. He was nervous as he looked at the others.
"Herido is under the impression," Said boy gave her a flat look, but she continued regardless, "that that was what is left of Lord Voldemort." Neville couldn't help it – he drew in a breath so quickly and so sharply that he started coughing.
"Yeh," Blaise said with surprising sympathy, "That was pretty much our reaction."
"I mean, we all grew up listening to the legends…" Draco began.
"The horror stories." The twins countered as one. Draco ignored them.
"But to think he was in the same forest as us. It's unbelievable." Draco's mind was working double time to decide what he should do with this information. Once again it came down to his father or his friends.
"It's terrifying!" Ron said with a scowl.
"Oh come on!" Blaise raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You're super dark now. You've killed people! More people than any of us!"
"Except me." Heri interjected.
"Except Herido." Blaise corrected without missing a beat.
"Yeah well, shut up." Was Ron's answer.
"As eloquent as ever, Ronald." He simply glared at Hermione in response to her sarcasm. She was muggleborn! She should have been on his side!
While his friends settled into a discussion about the merits of Voldemort's resurgence, Heri came to his own realisation. If Voldemort's spirit had been so powerful, once he was restored to life he'd be breath-taking.
And Herido wasn't anywhere near ready for him yet.
Shorter chapter, but hopefully worth it. This is what happens when you are home alone on a Friday night :) xx