Harry, Fred, and George didn't fully realize exactly how bad Gryffindor House would react to their sudden loss of seventy points until lunch. Since it was Saturday, Oliver had kept them on the pitch until all of them, even Harry, could score five times in a row past him. That single exercise had taken most of the morning, and by the end of it, Harry had overheard Fred and George plotting how to most irritate their captain. She had suggested Bulbadox Powder in his clothes, but they said it was too tame, and that they'd already done the same thing to Kenneth Towler a few months back.
When they walked into the Great Hall, still smelly since none of them - even the Chasers - felt that they could stand being near Oliver for even a minute more, the Gryffindor table fell silent, while Ravenclaw and Slytherin started to clap. Harry realized with a sinking stomach that their loss of seventy points had put them in third place. And with the end of the school year barely a month away, it was very doubtful that they would be able to catch up.
"What're they clapping about?" Ryan asked as the six of them went over to the Gryffindor table and started piling food onto their plates.
Harry flushed. "I - um - well, I fell asleep in the library last night," she said, choosing to go along with the story Fred had made up.
"So?" Zakir and Aiden were listening avidly, and Harry could see several of the surrounding students - both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff - leaning towards them to hear how Harry, Fred, and George had lost so many points.
Harry took a deep breath and stared at her plate, suddenly not hungry even though her stomach had been rumbling not five minutes earlier. "So Fred and George came to find me and then on our way back we ran into Professor McGonagall," she said quickly.
"And how late was this?" Zakir asked through a mouthful of baked potato.
"Around twelve thirty," Harry said, poking at her roast beef.
Aiden choked on his pumpkin juice. "How the hell did Madam Pince miss you?" he asked after apologizing to Zakir and Ryan, who had been on the receiving end of the spat out juice.
"He was in the Wand Lore section," Fred told him.
"Took us nearly half an hour just to find him," George finished.
"Mind you," Fred added, "If we'd brought Granger we'd have been out of there in about ten."
"And why are the Ravenclaws and Slytherins clapping?" Ryan looked confused, although Zakir was starting to cotton on.
"Because they lost seventy points for being out of bed," the dark-skinned boy said grimly, eyeing Harry like she had taken a bath in dungbombs.
"You forgot the detention," Harry pointed out sourly. She gave up her lunch as a bad job and stood up. "See you two later," she said to the twins, who didn't seem to care that the entire Gryffindor Table, minus their three teammates, was glaring at them. Fred gave some semblance of a 'see you' through his warm turkey sandwich, and George waved carelessly.
As she left the Great Hall, Harry did her best to ignore the glares of her housemates and the yelled out "Thanks, Potter!" that came from the Slytherins and Ravenclaws. By the time she had reached the doors, she was just barely holding back tears. She forced herself to walk calmly up the marble staircase, but as soon as she rounded the first corner she took off running, not really caring where she ended up.
Surprisingly, she found herself in the bathroom Hermione had been crying in on Halloween. Harry locked herself into a cubicle and allowed her tears to spill over. She didn't know why she was crying - it usually took much more to get her this emotional - but she sat on the toilet and let the tears come. More than anything, she wanted Remus to come and wrap her in his arms like he had done when she was little. The memories were faint, but she knew that whenever she had fallen hard enough to make her cry, Remus had swooped down on her and took her in his arms, joking and laughing and making sympathetic noises until she felt better.
Some time later, Harry emerged from the bathroom, face scrubbed clear of all indications that she'd spent the last who-knew-how-many hours crying. Although the common room was the last place she wanted to be, Harry knew she had to go through it eventually. When she got to the Fat Lady, however, and gave the password, the room within was empty. Startled, Harry glanced at the small lion-shaped clock near the message board and saw that it was dinner time. Her stomach rumbled, but she ignored it and went straight up to her dorm, where she grabbed a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom. After a quick, hot shower, Harry put on her pajamas and slipped into bed, preferring to pretend to be asleep for the next several hours than to face her fellow Gryffindors.
Harry awoke the next morning an outcast amongst Gryffindor House. Their loss of seventy points had dropped them back to a far third in the competition for the house cup, where before Gryffindor had been second to Slytherin by less than ten points. Malfoy's loss of thirty points had only caused a momentary fall-back for Slytherin, which soon overtook Ravenclaw for first place.
Harry, Fred, and George were shunned outright. Even the twin's antics couldn't win the forgiveness of the majority of the students, who had been looking forward to beating Slytherin out for the first time in six years. The three of them, as well as Hermione, Neville, and Lee, spent most of their time outside hidden in some of the large piles of rocks near the lake shore. Hermione and Harry had wanted to hide in the library, but Fred and George were still banned. Even Ron and Percy, the twins' own brothers, refused to speak to them, although Harry suspected Ron only did so to avoid being shunned himself, as Hermione, Lee, and Neville were for associating with the three.
It wasn't so bad at Quidditch practice, though, and the pitch soon became a safe haven from the ire directed her way. Zakir, Aiden, and Ryan had told Oliver the story of how the three other members of the team had come to lose so many points, and Oliver, surprisingly, had been very understanding. In fact, he felt that the ostracization was beneficial to their game.
"After all," he said loftily, "You won't be as distracted from the strategy."
Harry learned more than she had thought possible in the week following the nighttime escapade. For one, she learned that even the nicest people could hold grudges. Her other roommates, Dean and Seamus, wouldn't talk to her, and simply pretended she wasn't there. If it wasn't for Neville, Harry would have felt invisible while in the dorms. The rest of Gryffindor likewise went about their business as if she and her friends didn't exist. Harry was oddly hurt by this behavior, since even though she had only been on speaking terms with a select few of her House-mates, she had at least enjoyed exchanging polite 'good morning's' and 'pass the salt's' at the dinner table. She could only chalk it up to her never having gone through something like this before. When it was just Alex and her, their arguments were so petty and happened so frequently that, after five minutes of sullen silence, the spat would be forgotten. And her father, the rare times she did something bad enough to warrant reprimand, would send her to the corner of the guest toilet - the one located just down the hall from the formal sitting room - for a time-out. It was never too long, though, although sometimes it felt like it with the lack of anything to look at except a toilet, a sink, a mute mirror, and a plain painting of a forest waterfall.
Nearly two weeks passed with the majority of her house ignoring her, even to simply ask for someone to pass the bacon at breakfast time. After the first few days, however, Harry thought it was mostly reflex; the exams were barely a month away, and the older years especially were working themselves into a study-frenzy. Even Oliver had decreased the amount of time spent on the Quidditch pitch to allow himself extra study hours for his upcoming O.W.L.'s, something which Harry couldn't decide she was grateful for or not.
Exactly two weeks after their late-night adventure, Harry, Fred, and George each received identical notes from Professor McGonagall at breakfast.
Detention will be served tonight at half-past nine. Meet Mr. Filch in the Entrance Hall.
- M. McGonagall
"Well," George said, carelessly dropping his note onto the platter of scrambled eggs, ignoring Hermione's huff of annoyance. "At least we won't have to worry about detention during finals."
"When do you ever worry about detention?" Harry asked, genuinely curious. "Isn't your whole attitude that you don't care about getting detentions?"
"Au contraire, little cretin," Fred grinned through a mouthful of toast. "We always worry about getting detentions."
"It's all a matter of getting them for the wrong reasons," George added seriously. Hermione looked puzzled, but Harry and Lee grinned together. Neville hadn't pulled his head out of his advanced Herbology book, Flesh-Eating Plants of Asia, long enough to get a gist of the conversation.
"I wonder what we'll be doing," Harry mused as she watched Fred and George scarf down inordinately large amounts of food. Oliver had decided to stick with the morning practices (to the dismay of the rest of the team), so she supposed some of their appetite could come from the strenuous exercises Oliver had put them through. However, each of them was starting in on their third plate of food - how on earth could they still have room?
"Something nasty, no doubt," Fred admitted with a slight grimace.
"But it'll be worth it!" George butted in. Hermione sniffed in disapproval - Harry knew that she thought no detention would ever be worth getting in trouble for.
"And why's that?" the other girl asked, a bit waspishly. Harry wondered if Hermione was getting over her crush on George or not, but decided not to ever broach the subject. She'd seen the other girl with The Latest in Retaliatory Hexes and Jinxes, and didn't want to be her guinea pig.
"Because Malfoy's doing it with us," the twins chorused together. Even Hermione cracked a grin at that one.
At nine twenty, Harry, Fred, and George left their seats in the darkest corner of the Gryffindor Common Room and headed down to the Entrance Hall. Fred and George guided Harry through passageways she hadn't known existed, even after all of her nighttime adventures with them throughout the year.
"How do you know all of these?" she asked when they revealed an utterly non-descript flagstone in the middle of one of the most trafficked corridors on the fourth floor which could be opened by dancing a certain jig on top of it.
They exchanged mysterious smiles and said, together, "That is for us to know, and you to find out." Harry stifled a growl at their unwillingness to reciprocate in secrets and glared down the shadowy hole Fred had just revealed.
"What's down there?" she asked.
"Refer to previous answer," George answered with a smirk and pushed her forward. With a very girly shriek and a not so girly swear word that caused a few chuckles behind her, Harry fell down the hole and found herself in a smooth stone tube that slanted ever-so-slightly down and to the left. She picked up speed until the only thing she could hear was wind whistling past her ears, and her eyes, even behind her spectacles, were watering from the force of the air. A good minute and a half later, Harry slid out of a seemingly-solid wall and landed, rather hard, on the stone ground. Grumbling and cursing both Fred and George and whoever had shown them that particular passage, she moved out of the way just in time for George, followed closely by Fred, to shoot out of the wall. They landed on top of each other, but picked themselves up with grins on their faces.
"We don't take that one too often," Fred told Harry as she worked on straightening her robes, under which she had on a plain pair of jeans and a dark red shirt.
"I can't imagine why," she shot back, running a hand through her hair, which had grown quite a bit since September and now fell just even with her earlobes. It was still quite messy and nearly untamable by comb, unlike how it had been before her brother's inept snipping, but was nowhere near as bad as that first day.
The twins simply grinned and led the way to the Entrance Hall from the out-of-the-way corridor (that Harry quickly realized was quite near the kitchens, which made the twins' rapid journeys for party food suddenly make sense) that the shoot had deposited them into.
Filch was already there, Mrs. Norris cleaning herself by his feet. The caretaker had a lantern with him, and was scowling at Malfoy, who was sulking near the hourglasses.
"Oh, you're in for a good one, you are," Filch muttered happily as he led them across the long sloping lawns towards Hagrid's hut. "Into the forest for you, no doubt about it."
"The - the forest?" Malfoy said tremulously, and Harry was pleased to note the fear written plainly across his face. "But - we're not allowed in there! There's creatures in there - werewolves!"
Harry scowled and stepped into Malfoy's path. "You're an idiot," she snarled. "For one, werewolves are perfectly decent people twenty-eight days of the month! And two, the moon isn't full! Moron," she added for good measure, turning her back on the angrily flushing Malfoy. Fred and George were looking at her in slight surprise at her unusual venom, but shrugged it off quickly and mouthed, 'Good one!' at her. Filch had watched the exchange with unholy glee at the prospect of possibly being able to hand out more detentions, but the anticipation fled when Harry turned her back on Malfoy, so he scowled once more and continued his rant.
"Into the forest, yes indeed," he said in his hoarse voice. Harry rolled her eyes - she, Fred, and George had tried on multiple occasions to get into the forest. None of them had worked, though, since Hagrid seemed to have a sixth sense as to the borders of the trees. The bright light of a fire outside Hagrid's hut shone towards them, and Harry knew who their guide would be. Sure enough, a large figure stepped in front of the flames.
"Tha' you, Filch?" Hagrid boomed out.
"Oh, yes, I've got them trouble-makers with me. In for a treat, they are." He was starting to get repetitive. "Maybe you'll think twice before breakin' the rules next time."
"Tha's enough from yeh," Hagrid growled at Filch, who shuffled his feet angrily and raised the lantern higher.
"Be back to get what's left of 'em in the morning," he snarled finally, and turned back to the castle.
Malfoy immediately stepped towards Hagrid's circle of light. "I won't go," he said primly, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yeh'll go if yeh know wha's good fer yeh," Hagrid said back, as coldly as Harry had ever heard him speak.
"My Father - "
"Yer father was a student once, an' 'e knows how it works here," Hagrid cut him off, hefting what Harry recognized as a crossbow higher in his hands. "An' if yeh don' wan' detention fer the rest o' the year, yeh'll come with me!" Harry had to admit that Hagrid could be very intimidating when he wanted to be. Malfoy must have thought so too, because he simmered down, although his scowl deepened.
"Servant's work, this is," Harry heard him mutter as the four of them followed Hagrid and Fang to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "Just wait till I tell Father!"
Harry rolled her eyes and sped up to catch up with Fred and George, who were whispering together and peering into the dark trees around them.
"Stick close ter me," Hagrid instructed them as they set off into the forest on a path just wide enough for Harry, Fred, and George to walk abreast. Malfoy, perhaps fearing to be left behind, hurried up until he was walking just behind them, cursing every so often when he tripped over a tree-root or caught his robes on overhanging bushes.
The five of them, plus Fang, walked steadily deeper into the forest, following the path that only Hagrid could easily discern. After fifteen minutes, they came to a halt at a split.
"See tha'?" Hagrid asked, pointing in the darkness to a patch of a silvery something just a few feet from the where the path split. He led them over to it, and pushed Fang back from the puddle when the large boarhound lowered his head to sniff at it.
Harry leaned closer. It wasn't water, but it was unlike any other substance she'd ever seen. "What is it, Hagrid?" she asked. She wanted to touch it, but she knew her father would be most disappointed in her if she managed to maim herself from idle curiosity, not to mention her brother, who would think it some sort of cosmic joke.
"Tha's unicorn blood, tha' is," Hagrid said heavily. Harry gasped in horror - as a young girl, just after Remus had left, she'd spent quite a bit of time reading about magical animals. Unicorns had been among her favorites, although she adamantly denied it whenever Alex had asked. Hagrid dipped a finger into the silvery blood and lifted it out, allowing the viscous substance to drip back in. He stood up from his crouch and looked around them, eyebrows scrunched together as he thought. "Sommat's killin' our unicorns," he explained after a moment. Harry glanced at Fred and George - neither had smiles of any kind on their faces, and they looked more serious than she had ever seen them.
"Werewolves," Malfoy said immediately.
Harry rounded on him, intending to ream him out, but Hagrid spoke first, shaking his head. "Not fas' enough ter catch a unicorn. I reckon it's sommat unnatural-like tha's doin' it." He shook his head sadly, and Harry had to agree. To kill a unicorn was incredibly difficult; even catching one unawares was said to be impossible. The only way wand-makers could get their hairs was during mating season, when the unicorns were so absorbed in finding the best mate that they often forgot to retain their keen observation of their surroundings. Unicorn horns were likewise expensive, but only because unicorns only shed their horns once every three years.
Malfoy seemed to be having a hard time wrapping his brain around the fact that something was faster and, quite obviously, more vicious than a werewolf. Hagrid ignored the pale boy and peered down both of the paths.
"I dunno' which way this one went," he said. "All I know is tha' it's been bleedin' fer the past two days, so we need ter find it fast-like if it's goin' ter live. So we're goin' ter have ter split up." Harry watching in amusement as Hagrid ran his eyes over the four of them, likely debating the merits of keeping Fred and George together as opposed to splitting them up. "Right. George, yer goin' with Harry. Fred, yeh'll come with me 'n Malfoy."
Fred objected. "Can I go with Harry, Hagrid?" Harry looked at him in confusion, just in time to see George rolling his eyes in irritation and amusement.
Hagrid's eyes narrowed slightly darting from Fred, to George, to Harry. "Yeh'll come with me," he said finally. Harry had to work not to burst out laughing - obviously, Hagrid didn't trust the twins, and was having a hard time decided who was the worst of the two and which one was more likely to cause trouble. George had apparently won the 'good twin' award.
"Fine," Fred said, a bit waspishly. "But they get Fang."
"'E's a bloody coward, but 'e can go with 'em," Hagrid allowed.
George and Fred exchanged a long look before they went to their respective places - Fred, arms crossed in a red-haired version of Malfoy's sulk, stood next to Hagrid, while George, with Fang following him, came to Harry's side.
"All righ'. If yer get into trouble, jus' send up red sparks. An' if yeh find the poor beast, green."
With that one last agreement, Hagrid, Malfoy, and Fred set off down the right-hand path, while Harry, George, and Fang took the left. Soon, the sounds of Hagrid's large steps faded into oblivion, so all Harry could hear was her own breathing, Fang's snuffling, and their steps.
"Have you been in here before?" Harry finally whispered to George as they skirted around another patch of silver blood.
"Just once," George admitted, grunting slightly as he pulled Fang away from the puddle, which the dog looked to have been seriously contemplating drinking. "Me 'n Fred got maybe a hundred yards in before we ran into Hagrid coming out. Got a week's worth for that. First year," he added at Harry's unspoken question.
They were silent after that, but the patches of blood were becoming more and more regular, and larger.
"We must be getting close," Harry said at last. They had been walking for nearly half an hour now, and were deep into the forest. The trees had huge, thick trunks, and the gnarled roots were sometimes so large that Harry and George could easily walk underneath them where they arched above the earth. The further they went, the fresher the blood seemed, glinting off the light of George's lit wand-tip. In some places, small trails of blood connected the puddles, as if the unicorn had been staggering around, unable to stay in one place for long.
George made a noncommittal sound, and Harry pulled out her wand, where it had rested, unneeded, in her pocket.
As they rounded a hairpin turn in the trail, a clearing came into view, a sort of hollow with large bushes surrounding it. The light from George's wand reflected off something large and white, laying near the far edge.
"There!" Harry exclaimed, louder than she'd meant. The trees moaned in a wind, and Harry shivered. Even though it was the end of May, the Scottish weather hadn't warmed much. Together, she and George lifted their wands and shot green sparks into the air.
"Should we go closer?" Harry whispered to George, who was staring at the unicorn, a mixture of curiosity and sadness playing across his face. Harry knew that her own betrayed her feelings as well - the unicorn laying there was the saddest thing she'd ever seen. Nothing so innocent and pure deserved to be hunted like that.
George nodded. "We - we should make sure it's still alive," he said in a hoarse voice.
"C'mon," Harry said, pocketing her wand as she crossed the open clearing. George's hand caught her shoulder, and pulled her back a bit.
"Careful," he warned, and she knew he wasn't joking by the faint amount of moonlight that crept between the trees foliage. "We don't know if the thing that was hunting it is around."
Harry nodded her understanding but shrugged his hand off and started across the clearing once more. She heard George following behind her, and Fang's body thump to the ground as the boarhound lay down for a rest.
She had barely come within three feet of the unicorn's prone form when a rustling sound that was most definitely not the trees met her ears. George heard it too, for he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
Harry allowed herself to be pulled away from the unicorn, even though ever fiber of her being wanted to kneel by its side and make sure it was still alive. "Wand out," George instructed in a low tone, his own pointing off to where the noise was coming from. Harry got her wand out too, as the rustling got louder and louder.
A cloaked form glided into the clearing, staying in the shadows near the unicorn. It turned its seemingly empty hood towards them, and took a step forward.
"St - stop!" George squeaked out, but Harry didn't have the heart to make fun of him for it. She was shaking too badly to even hold her wand straight. She didn't know why, but every muscle in her body screamed for her to run, run, run, but she couldn't seem to make her legs work. Fang had no such problem, and Harry heard his whimpers and yelps fade as the boarhound made his escape.
The cloaked figure ignored George's warning and glided forward towards them. Harry and George were retreating step by step, their wands held out in front of them as the figure advanced on them. An odd mist crept towards them from the figure, and Harry knew from the way the hair on the back of her neck was raising that she couldn't let it touch them. Harry sent up more sparks - red this time - before using her other hand to dig under her shirt, searching for the rune pendant her father had sent, the portkey. But before she could yank it out from under her clothes - damn the consequences when her father found her at the safe-house in Hogwarts robes - pounding hoofbeats approached and Harry felt a large something leap over her head and towards the cloaked figure, which was retreating rapidly with its odd glide, then turning around and fleeing, the mist evaporating quickly as it left.
Harry sagged against George in relief. She'd never been so frightened in her life, not even when faced with Fluffy.
"Wh - what was that?" Harry asked at large, not expecting an answer.
"That, young Potter, was the - "
"George! Harry!" Fred interrupted the voice. Harry turned to see the unknown person, but she could feel George twisting behind her to welcome his brother.
When she saw the speaker, Harry felt her breath whoosh out of her. A centaur, palomino horse with the upper body and head of a man, whose hair looked silver in the moonlight, stood before her, a sentinel between her and the unicorn.
"Is it - is it alive?" she asked in a small voice, peering around the centaur to catch a glimpse of the unicorn.
"I fear not," the centaur answered calmly, but his eyes betrayed a deep sadness. "Its time was past long ago, and even the stars could not predict this horror."
She stared sadly at the unicorn before shaking her head and looking up at the centaur. "I'm Harry," she said, deciding to be polite and introduce herself.
The centaur gave a small nod of his head and replied, "And I am known as Firenze. But you should not stay here, daughter of stag - " Harry blanched at his apparent knowledge of her gender but didn't make to move as Firenze continued " - as the forest is not as safe as it once was."
"But - what was - " Harry was cut off by Fred, who had finished making sure his brother was all right and now turned to Harry, yanking her from George's arms and squeezing her in a hug.
"I'm alright!" Harry protested from where she was squashed against Fred. "Eurgh - can't - breathe!" It worked and Fred let her go. The moonlight washed over his features, turning his normally vibrant hair a soft silvery-blue color. She could see just well enough to know that his face was both worried and exasperated.
"This is why I wanted to come with you!" he exclaimed. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Like you would have done anything different than George," she scoffed. Just behind Fred, she could see George rolling his eyes.
"I would have!" Fred said adamantly. "Er - just what were you up against?" He looked around the clearing, scanning for potential threats.
"I don't know," Harry admitted. She turned back to Firenze. "Sorry about him," she said. "He's a bit protective of me and George." The centaur gazed down at her solemnly, but Harry thought she detected a bit of amusement in his eyes, which vanished the second she asked, "What was that thing? Why did it want the unicorn?"
The centaur seemed to think for a moment before replying. "To kill a unicorn is a terrible thing. The murder of something so good, so pure, will forever stain the killer's soul. And while to drink the blood of such a creature, a creature so devoid of evil and so filled with innocence, can save one's life, even if they are on the very brink of death, yet will condemn the drinker to a cursed life, a half life."
George had moved over to her and Fred. "But - who would want a half life? Wouldn't it be better to die?" Fred made a small noise of agreement.
The centaur made no answer, but looked up at the small patch of sky visible from the clearing. "What is hidden up in the castle, Harriet Potter?" Firenze asked, still looking at the stars.
"The Sorcerer's Stone," Harry answered promptly, unsure as to why Firenze was asking, or how he even knew.
"Yes. And what does the Stone do?"
"It turns objects to gold, and is the vital ingredient of the Elixir of Life. But what has that got to do with - "
"Everything, Harriet Potter. Everything." Firenze looked at her, and Harry took a half-step back at the intensity of his gaze. "The stars spell out every single living creature's path in life. I can see yours. It - "
"Firenze!" came the reprimand. Three more centaurs came into the clearing.
"Where the bloody hell are Hagrid and Malfoy?" George muttered.
"Dunno," Fred replied absently. Harry tuned them out as she watched the four centaurs.
"Bane, Magorian, Ronan," Firenze greeted the other three.
"We do not warn humans of what is to come," the one in the middle said sternly. "You know that. And we do not interfere in their paths."
"This one is just a foal," Firenze countered.
"Foal or not - "
"A student at the school, just a youngling. They have no business in this forest." Firenze was adamant, and Harry watched as one of the other two centaurs, as yet unspeaking, nodded.
"Firenze may be right," it said, stepping forward into the light. "The stars can be misread."
"Very well," the angry one said, stomping a back hoof and swishing its tail. "But we will discuss this matter again at the Council." It turned and the last centaur, the unspoken one, followed, leaving Firenze and the other behind.
"Thank you, Ronan," Firenze said calmly, turning back to Harry and the twins.
"I did it not for you," Ronan replied. Harry watched as Ronan - whose horse parts were dark brown - looked to the sky as Firenze had done earlier. "Mars is bright tonight. These foals must leave the forest."
Firenze nodded his head. "Follow me," he said to Harry and the twins. "I will lead you back to Hagrid."
Hagrid was thunderously mad when Harry, Fred, and George, led by Firenze and followed by Ronan, finally found him. Malfoy, it seemed, had taken fright when Fang showed up, and used his wand to try and stop the dog but had ended up tying himself up and getting trapped in the branches of a tall tree, high enough up that Hagrid couldn't reach him. Harry wondered why Hagrid didn't simply levitate Malfoy down, but remembered that she'd never seen Hagrid with a wand, just the pink umbrella.
It took Fred and George floating Malfoy down from the branches with their wands to be able to leave the Forest, and if the blonde Slytherin was scraped against the tree a few times…well, Fred and George were only third years, after all. Firenze and Ronan followed until the trees thinned out, where they slipped away so silently Harry never even realized that they had left until she looked back to thank them once again.
While George explained what had happened to Hagrid and Malfoy, Fred joining in with what he knew, Harry pondered what Firenze had said, and what exactly his words hinted at.
Back up in the tower, Hermione and Neville were waiting for them by the fire, yawning widely but still awake. Fred and George took seats on the sofa, but Harry couldn't sit still. Instead, she paced on the red rug in front of the flames, thinking furiously while Fred and George told Hermione and Neville what had happened. Faintly, Harry paid attention to the story, pleased when her two friends gasped in all the right places but didn't interrupt.
But the majority of her brain was focused on the centaur's words. The Sorcerer's Stone; unicorn blood with the power to heal those on the brink of death; Mars is bright tonight. She knew there was a connection; she just couldn't see it. Harry briefly wished Hermione could have been there to hear the centaur's words for herself; despite what the other girl said about Harry's own reasoning, Hermione was the best at thinking logically.
When the others finally succumbed to their weary bodies and went up to their beds, Harry followed. She fell asleep quickly and dreamed of unicorns, stones, stars, and a dark cloaked figure uniting the three.
May 30
Dear Alex,
Last night was the detention, and it's given me a lot to think about, so I'm sorry if this letter is overly
long. It helps to write it all out. We - Fred, George, Malfoy, and me - were sent into the Forbidden
Forest to track down an injured unicorn. Hagrid said that it's the third one this year. I don't think you
ever read too much about unicorns - you were always more interested in dragons - so I'll try and fill
you in. Unicorns are notoriously difficult to catch, even just for some of their hair, and are easily capable
of outrunning even a werewolf. Their blood, which is bright silver, by the way, can save a person on the
brink of death, but will give them a cursed life. What creature is capable of killing a unicorn, simply for
their blood? There's no other reason to kill such an innocent animal; if it was the horn or hair they
wanted, they could have simply waited for mating season, or searched the ground and bushes!
Sorry. I'm still upset.
Hagrid split us up in the Forest. Me and George went one way with Fang (Hagrid's dog) and Malfoy and
Fred went the other way with Hagrid. George and I found the unicorn; it died. But we didn't know that
until afterwards. I was on my way to check and see if it was still alive when this cloaked figure glided - and
I mean, like glided, as in no feet on the ground! - into the clearing. It paused like it had wanted the unicorn,
but decided to get rid of me and George first. It was backing us into a corner when a centaur, Firenze,
appeared. But the thing is, I was ready to use my Portkey to get us out of there, even though it would have
meant giving up on our plan. The figure was making some sort of poisonous mist appear - I mean, I think
it was poison. I didn't really find out, it was just a feeling, like if the mist touched us we'd die. It didn't bother
Firenze a bit, though, so that's good.
Firenze came, scared off the creature, and then stood and talked with us. Well, me, really, since Fred came
barreling in and was inspecting me and George for injuries. Barmy git.
What I don't understand, though, is why Firenze all but told me that the cloaked figure was after the unicorn's
blood. And then he went on about how the object hidden in the school - can't tell you so don't bother asking till
summer - and I can't help but think they're connected! And then this other centaur, Ronan, said that 'Mars is
bright tonight', whatever that means.
Thanks for letting me ramble. Good luck on exams! I'll see you in three weeks!
Love,
Harry