They left McGonagall's office twenty minutes later, having lost 50 points each and looking grim. The old witch had been furious, asking them how dare they breaking the school rules. The only good thing that came out of it was that Malfoy had been punished too for he also was out of bed, even if he snitched about Norbert.
The following morning, notes were delivered to them at the breakfast table. They were all the same:
Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight.
Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.
Professor Minerva McGonagall
"Isn't it late for detention?" Rohini asked Padma, having a bad feeling about it. It was her second time in detention this year and hopefully, the last one. Having lost her appetite, she played with her scrambled eggs until the food vanished from the plates and was barely able to do anything productive that day.
At eleven o'clock that night, she said goodnight to Padma who wished her good luck. Then, she put on Madam Weasley's sweater to stay warm, her black cloak and her Ravenclaw scarf and joined everybody in the entrance hall. Filch was already there—and so was Malfoy. Rohini couldn't help but feel proud of herself when she spot the biting mark she left on Draco's left hand.
"Follow me," said Filch, lighting a lamp and leading them outside. "I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at them. "It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out… hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my office."
Rohini gulped, glad that Filch wasn't the Headmaster of Hogwarts. It would be a real torture otherwise – literally.
"Filch sounds delighted, it can't mean anything good for us." Hermione said.
The moon was bright, but clouds were scudding across it. The air was cold and Rohini was glad she was wearing so many layers of clothes. To their surprise, they stopped in front of Hagrid's hut where he was waiting, sniffing loudly.
"Norbert's gone. Dumbledore sent him off to Romania to live in a colony." He told them and Rohini gently patted his arm, realising he was holding a crossbow. "What if he don't like Romania? What if the other dragons are mean to him? He's only a baby, after all."
"Oh, for God's sake, pull yourself together, man. You're going into the forest, after all. Got to have your wits about you." Filch grunted and Rohini froze, hoping she had hear him wrong.
Ron let out a little moan, and Malfoy was paler than ever.
"The forest?" he repeated, and to Rohini's delight he did sound terrified. "We can't go in there at night—there's all sorts of things in there—werewolves, I heard."
As if it was answering Draco's worries, a wolf howled to the moon somewhere in the forest.
"That's your problem, isn't it?" said Filch, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"
"Oh, stop lecturin' them, yeh old prune. 'Snot your place to do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."
"I'll be back at dawn," said Filch, "for what's left of them," he added nastily before leaving. Rohini resisted the urge to cast a spell at him.
"I'm not going in that forest." Malfoy said, crossing his arms and raising his chin. He looked at Hagrid furiously, but then dropped his gaze. "My father will hear about it." He mumbled and Rohini snorted.
"Right then," said Hagrid, "Now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."
He led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the forest.
"Look there," said Hagrid, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood."
"What?!" Rohini squealed. "That's… that's blood? Hagrid, I don't want to sound like Malfoy, but I'm not sure First Years have their places in this forest. We can barely protect ourselves, let alone fight something with a killing instinct!"
Harry and the others nodded and Hagrid seemed embarrassed for a moment before shaking his head.
"'M sorry, can't go against Professor McGonagall's order. Anyway, this is the second time in a week that a unicorn is attacked. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."
"In your dreams." Draco said between his teeth. "We're gonna get ourselves killed."
"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid. "An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."
"I want Fang," said Malfoy quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth. Rohini puffed.
"Fang? He's as much as a coward as you." She said and Malfoy threw her a nasty glance. They were like elementary school kids trying to pick a fight at every given occasion. Probably sensing that they weren't going to move on if he didn't interfere, Hagrid cleared his throat and raised a hand.
"So me, Ron, and Hermione will go one way and Draco, Harry, Rohini an' Fang'll go the other. Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? But if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks. Be careful, and if something happen, do NOT panic. Let's go, now."
The forest was eerie. A thick mist was floating around and strange noises were coming from every direction. They could hear the dead branches cracking under their shoes and Rohini realised it was perfectly impossible to go unnoticed in a forest.
A little way into it they reached a fork in the muddy path. Hagrid and Coe went to the left and Rohini exchanged a glance with Harry before turning right, Fang and Malfoy behind them. The silence was uncomfortable and Rohini shuddered when she thought she saw a pair of glowing eyes in the bushes. The trees in the forest seemed ancient, dense and rough looking.
"I refuse to go further." Draco suddenly said, sitting on a tree's root. Fang lay at his feet, apparently agreeing with Draco. The Potter twins rolled their eyes. Except from the lamp held by Draco, they had no source of light for the trees were high and dense, hiding the moon.
"Fine, you can stay here. But we'll take the lamp." Rohini said, crossing her arms and leaning against the tree. "You just stepped into unicorn blood, by the way." She pointed out and Malfoy grimaced when he realised that indeed, his left shoe was in a puddle of sliver blood.
"Ew." He said, standing up to go clean up his shoe in the wet grass. Suddenly, he frowned. "Did you hear that?"
Rohini sized him by his cloak and pulled him down on his knees, waving at Harry to blow up the candle and hide behind the tree too. The three of them listened, Harry petting Fang to keep him quiet. Rohini could feel her heart beating fast. Something was slithering over dead leaves nearby: it sounded like a cloak trailing along the ground. It suddenly stopped and Rohini closed her eyes, hoping the thing hadn't spotted them. Then, they heard it leave.
"What was that?" Harry asked as they stood up, shaking a bit and covered in dirt and dead leaves. Fang had drooled a bit on Rohini's cloak and she grimaced, wishing for nothing but a hot bubble bath and a cup of tea. "A werewolf?"
"No, a werewolf would have been able to sniff our sent, and we'll probably be dead already." Rohini said, rubbing her arms to chase her goosebumps away. "Come on, let's go." She said. "Lumos."
"Lumos." Harry and Draco repeated for their lamp was useless now. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were too thick. Rohini wouldn't admit it out loud but she was terrified as they found more and more splashes of blood. There was no way the poor unicorn was still alive.
"We can't go further." Malfoy said. "Let's go back."
"There's a clearing ahead." Harry told them and Rohini hesitated before nodding. They climbed a few huge roots and as Rohini began to take a step further, Harry stopped her.
"Look—" he murmured, his voice shaking. Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. Rohini dropped her wand, in shock, and ran closer to the thing. It was the unicorn, lifeless. Its mane was spread on the dark leaves and Rohini kneeled next to the poor thing, gently caressing its head.
"It's dead." She said, though it was obvious by now. Her throat was dry but her eyes watery.
Harry had taken one step closer to his sister when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered… Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast.
"AAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Malfoy screamed, running away and followed close by Fang. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Rohini who was staring, eyes opened wide in fear. She heard Harry screaming her name as the creature began to float fast towards her. Rohini acted by instinct and threw one of her shoes to the creature for she had dropped her wand earlier. It hissed and came closer and Rohini protected her face with her arms when the sound of hooves echoed through the clearing and something jumped clean over Rohini, charging at the figure. Rohini opened her eyes, and realised that the hooded figure was gone.
Instead, a centaur was standing over, with short blond curly hair and a sorrowful expression on his face. He looked young yet old at the same time. Rohini gulped as Harry joined them and helped her on her feet. He was holding Rohini's wand and gave it back to her. They stared at the centaur, not sure of what to do.
"Thanks for your help." Rohini said in a little voice. The centaur nodded.
"Potters, you must leave. You are known to many creatures here. The forest is not safe at this time. Especially for you, Harry Potter."
"What was this thing?" Rohini asked, still shaking.
"A monstrous creature. It is a terrible crime to slay a unicorn. Drinking the blood of a unicorn will keep you alive even if you are an inch from death. But at a terrible price. You have slain something so pure that the moment the blood touches your lips, you will have a half-life. A cursed life."
"That's awful." Rohini said, sniffing. "Who would dare to do something so awful?"
"Can you think of no one?" The centaur asked.
"Voldemort." Harry said. "But it can't be!"
" Do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"
"The Philosopher's Stone." The twins said in unison.
The centaur nodded again. His eyes lingered on the scar that stood out, livid, on Harry's forehead. Rohini realised it seemed more visible than usual.
"You better get back to Hagrid. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way." He said, kneeling to let Harry and Rohini clamber on his back.
"My name is Firenze."
"Nice to meet you." Rohini said, clutching his torso.
Firenze stood up and whisked around; they plunged off into the trees, leaving the dead unicorn and the clearing behind them. They made their way through the trees in silence. Rohini winced as Harry clenched her a bit too tightly and hoped she wasn't hurting Firenze either. Finally, they heard Fang bark and Firenze came to a stop as Hagrid and the rest appeared.
"Hello there, Firenze. I see yeh'v met our young Mr. and Mrs Potter. You all right there, Harry? You look a bit pale."
The twins slid off his back and Rohini offered him a tired but friendly smile.
"This is where I leave you," Firenze murmured to Rohini, before turning to Harry. "You are safe now. Good luck." said Firenze. The, he turned and cantered back into the depths of the forest.
"The unicorn is dead, Hagrid." Rohini announced. "Something… something drank its blood."
"I think yeh should go back to the castle now." Hagrid said, looking grim. "I will walk yeh back."
They walked in silence, the twins still haunted by the hooded figure that might have been Voldemort. For the second time in their life, they had faced their parents' murderer.
Xxx
Rohini wasn't able to sleep that night; every time she closed her eyes, she would see the corpse of the unicorn with Voldemort drinking its blood, followed by a flash of green light. Feeling that Harry probably wouldn't be able to sleep either, she slowly sneaked out of the girl dorm, holding her two way mirror and tried to join Harry.
"Hey." He said, looking as exhausted as her. "Can't sleep?"
"No, not really." Rohini sighed, sitting on the cold marble floor. "You're with Hermione and Ron?"
"They just want back to bed. We talked a bit about what just happened." Harry then repeated to her what they had been saying. "Snape wants the Stone for Voldemort, and Voldemort's waiting in the forest. It's obvious, now."
"What I don't understand is, Snape is a teacher at Hogwarts. Wouldn't Dumbledore be aware of him working for Voldemort if it was the case? He's Voldemort biggest enemy after all. With Dumbledore around, he won't touch us."
"Well, he sure was ready to try tonight." Harry pointed out and Rohini shivered. Harry was right; he had been so close to her and if Firenze hadn't been here to save them...
Dumbledore or not, Voldemort will probably do anything to get the Stone and finally get rid of them. 'No more Twins who Lived.' Rohini thought grimly as she slipped under her blanket, staring at the moon by the window. It was the same colour as unicorn blood, she realised with a shiver.