Harry Potter Z: And the Sorcerer's Stone
See Chapter 1 and remember don't charge sleeping dragons.
Chapter 7: Where the Wild Things Are
The weeks went by and Harry, Ron and Hermione still couldn't do much to protect the stone. They would occasionally listen at Fluffy's door to make sure the giant dog was still there. The beast's growls and snores didn't tell them much, but as far as Harry could tell he had plenty of ki, so he was probably uninjured.
They also did their best to casually follow Quirrell around as much as they could, hoping to keep Snape from being able to confront him alone. Harry took time to encourage the constantly quivering Professor and Ron even started scolding the students he heard mocking Quirrell's stuttering.
Despite their fears the stone appeared to stay safe weeks after they would have thought Quirrell would have caved in. He was apparently braver than he looked.
Shortly before Easter break Hermione suddenly started to panic. "Ten weeks," Hermione exclaimed as she through a large pile of notes on one of the common room tables. "Finals start in ten weeks. I can't believe I got so distracted."
When no one shared a similar panicked reaction to her outburst, she looked up from the notes she was starting to sort. "We should have started studying a month ago," Hermione declared.
"Hermione," Ron sounded long suffering. "Final Exams are ages away."
"It's only ten weeks Ron," Hermione sounded outraged. "That's like a few seconds to Nicholas Flamel."
"Yah, we're not six hundred years old," Ron quipped. "Why do you need to study anyway? You already know it all anyway."
"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important…"
"Hermione, calm down," Harry interrupted her rant. "You need to calm down if you're going to study. You need to be calm and undistracted or you won't accomplish anything."
"At least that's what my mum always said," Harry appended when Hermione didn't look pleased at his outburst.
"How well have you ever done on your exams?" Hermione asked pointedly.
"Actually," Harry scratched the back of his head nervously. "I've always just learned something and moved on to the next thing that builds off of it. I've never really had to take a final exam before."
From there the conversation degraded into Hermione lecturing about the importance of Final Exams and various strategies for test taking and studying. All the while Ron tried to convince Harry that things weren't that bad and he didn't need to study quite as much as Hermione was suggesting.
However the Professors seemed to take Hermione's view. As Easter break approached they began piling on more and more homework. So much so that Ron and Harry found themselves spending a lot more time with Hermione in the Library just to finish their homework.
Harry was using a memorization technique his mother had taught him to common magical plants and their uses when he noticed Hagrid. He had never seen Hagrid in the library before. And Hagrid's size and the large moleskin overcoat he wore would have made him stand out. Harry didn't think he would have missed him.
"Hagrid," Harry called quietly to his friend. "What brings you here?"
"Jus' lookin'," Hagrid shuffled a book behind his back and looked around the room dubiously instantly making Harry, Ron and Hermione interested in what their friend was up to.
"An' what're you lot up ter?" Hagrid stared down suspiciously at his three young friends. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Ron blurted out. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerers' St…"'
"Shhhhh." Hagrid looked around quickly. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"
"Acutaully there are a few things we needed to know," Harry began. "Other than Fluffy, what else is guarding the stone?
"SHHHHH." Hagrid was louder this time. "Listen - come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh…"
"See you later then," Harry said happily. Hagrid seemed to retreat out the door slipping a book in one of his oversized pockets.
"He never did answer my question about what he was looking for did he?" Harry asked.
"And what was that behind his back?" Hermione asked. "Do you think it could be about the stone?"
"I'll go check what section he was in," Ron had already jumped away from the desk and turned around by the time he'd finished speaking.
He came back with a couple of books in his arms. "Dragons! Hagrid was looking at books about dragons," Ron whispered numbly. "Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."
"That makes sense," Harry said absently as he grabbed the two books Ron had brought. He seemed more interested in which of the two books he would read first. "He told me that he'd always wanted a dragon."
"But it's against our laws," Ron was a little hysterical. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that." Ron didn't see the impressed look in Hermione's eyes. She didn't know that. "It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden—anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
"But aren't there dragons in Great Britain," Harry asked while looking at the book on dragon species.
"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."
Harry was suddenly glad he hadn't mentioned his pet dragon Icarus. He and his brother, Gohan had helped take care of Icarus while the dragon was still young. Though they visited the dragon often, he wasn't even slightly domesticated.
Fortunately Hermione didn't notice the guilty look that flittered across his face. She was too busy postulating about what Hagrid could be doing with Ron. It wasn't until a few hours later that they arrived at Hagrid's hut. They would have been there sooner, but Harry was busy reading about dragons.
The hut was extremely hot when Hagrid invited them inside. Despite the warm weather Hagrid had a large fire stoked in the fire place. Harry was again the only person to accept Hagrid's offering of food. This time they were stoat sandwiches."
"So Harry, what were yeh needin' to ask me?" Hagrid asked.
"Well," Harry swallowed a bit from his sandwich. "We need to know what else is guarding the stone."
"I can't tell yeh that," Hagrid was much calmer than he had been before. "Number one, I don' now meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts…I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."
"We accidentally ran into the forbidden corridor one night," Harry said between bites of his sandwich.
"Yeh did wha?" Hagrid's voice boomed.
Looking up from is sandwich Harry realized he should not have said that. "We were lost," Harry tried to sound defensive.
"But the door's always locked," Hagrid blurted out.
"We unlocked it," Harry said nervously.
"Why woul' yeh do tha? Didn' yeh thin' there might a' been a reason tha' door was locked?"
"There wasn't anywhere to go," Harry tried to hold back his annoyance at everyone underestimating him. He was trying to keep his strength a secret after all. "Malfoy set Filch on us."
"What were yeh doin' out a bounds anyways?" Hagrid asked suspiciously.
"Well…I don't want to ask you to betray the trust that Dumbledore places in you so we better not say. But don't worry, it won't happen again," Harry smiled reassuringly at Hagrid, who looked to be beaming underneath his beard at Harry's praise.
"That's right," Hermione smiled at Hagrid. "We know how much Dumbledore trusts you. We were just wondering who else he trusts enough to guard the stone."
"Ok, guess I can tell yeh that…" Harry wasn't sure, but he thought Hagrid might be blushing underneath his beard. "He borrowed Fluffy from me o'course... then some o' the teachers did enchantments...Professor Sprout…Professor Flitwick…Professor McGonagall…Professor Quirrell…an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."
Hagrid's audience gasped at his last revelation. "Look Dumbledore trusts Professor Snape an' yeh should too, even if yeh don' like him much. An' the stone is very well protected so no more going out a' bounds it's dangerous right now."
"Don't worry, I won't let them," Hermione said sternly. "If they'd have listened to me they wouldn't have been out of bounds for Filch to catch."
Incensed Harry turned toward her. "If you had been paying attention that night instead of trying to lecture us, you would remember that I didn't go, I knew it was a trap."
"Oh," Hermione said disbelievingly. "Then why did you go?"
"How was I supposed to know he would be willing to hide his face completely behind someone else? I've never met some one who was as big a coward as Malfoy." Harry waved his arms to emphasize his point.
"Wha' do yeh mean by that?" Hagrid asked. He'd quickly lost track of what the two were talking about. Ron looked questioningly at them as well. Apparently he wasn't doing much better and he'd been there at the time.
"Well," Harry scratched his head as he turned back toward Hagrid. "Every coward I've ever known would at least have been waiting for me with a bunch of other people to beat me up. So I couldn't risk letting Ron walk into that alone if that was what Malfoy was planning."
"You must not have met many cowards then," Ron laughed.
"Right," Hermione went in for the kill. "It's what Snape would have done. And if you don't understand how he would act you can't say he isn't the type to try and steal the stone from Dumbledore."
"No," Harry said sternly. "Snape would have arranged it so he could get away with attacking me in some way and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it and he couldn't be punished for it."
"Yer' not still on bout' tha are yeh," Hagrid broke in. "Look, Snape helping protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it. An' even if he didn' like yeh Harry, he wouldn' attack yeh."
"He did at the first Quidditch match," Hermione said immediately
"And almost every Friday," Harry added before Hagrid could retort.
"What?" Hermione sounded shocked.
"Yeah, he tries to read my mind and I have to push him out," Harry said around another bite of stoat sandwich.
"And every time he does Snape stumbles around," Ron interjected. "Some times it looks like he's about to pass out."
"You mean all those time's Snape nearly falls down in class is because he's trying to read your mind?" Hermione asked. Harry just nodded.
"And you're just now telling me about it?" Hermione looked upset that he'd been hiding it from her.
"Well it's just never come up since we started spending time together," Harry said defensively.
"But you've got to tell Professor McGonagall or even Professor Dumbledore," Hermione insisted.
But the truth was that having something that he could beat the potions professor at as what made the class bearable for Harry and he didn't want to tell. Quiltily wanting to ignore Hermione's pleas to tell a teacher Harry started staring at the fire. More specifically he started staring at something in the fire.
"Hagrid, what's that?" Harry pointed at a large black egg sitting in the middle of the embers.
"Ah…well, that's err…" Hagrid mumbled.
"Where did you get it Hagrid?" Ron crawled over to the fireplace to get a closer look at the large egg, ah-ing appreciatively. "It must of cost a fortune."
"Won it, las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest." Hagrid looked pleased. Harry was pretty sure it was because of his prize more than his prowess at cards.
"What type is it, do you know Hagrid?" Harry asked excitedly.
"It's a Norwegan Ridgeback, isn't it Hagrid?" Ron piped in. Hermione might have been impressed at Ron's knowledge if she hadn't been so worried.
"That's right Ron," Hagrid smiled beneath his beard. "Yeh can tell by its black color and the golden flecks that yeh can only see when it's hot."
"But why do you have it in the fire?" Harry asked cautiously.
"Why to keep it warm, o' course." Hagrid explained happily. "Yeh, see their mothers breathe on 'em. See I've bin doin' some readin' it says so right here in Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit."
Hagrid lifted a large book out from where he'd hidden it under his pillow and opened it. Harry didn't waste a second scooting over to read it with him. "See, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour."
"What do their mother's feed them?" Harry asked. And soon the two of them were huddled over Hagrid's book discussing various aspects of growing dragons while Hermione looked on in dread. Hermione tried to interject that Hagrid lived in a wooden house, but the two didn't seem to notice.
Their visit wasn't the longest, due to the stifling heat in Hagrid's hut. The three students were glad to be out in the cooling evening air. Hermione however was on a mission to convince Harry that the dragon had to go.
"I know," Harry sighed. "But what are we going to tell Hagrid? After seeing how happy he was I just didn't have the heart to tell Hagrid he couldn't keep it. And even if we could convince him what are we going to do with the dragon then?"
No one had an answer from that one. Hermione frowned, silently thinking as they walked back up to the castle. It was indeed a bit of a conundrum on top of all the things they had to worry about.
"I wonder what it would be like to have a normal life," Ron bemoaned.
"I expect it would be rather dull," Harry replied with a grin causing both boys to laugh. Hermione however didn't seem to agree with Harry's sentiment.
Their problems didn't diminish and neither did their homework. Night after night they struggled to keep up with all the homework they had received. They didn't seem to have any time to worry about what to do about Hagrid's illegal dragon or Snape and the stone. And the study schedules Hermione had made for Harry and Ron didn't include any time to work on anything but school work. Harry had to make extra time to work on the homework his mum had given him and to train, which he had grudgingly had to cut back. Ron, who wasn't used to the strict study schedules that Harry's mum had always given Harry, wasn't taking it so well. He was pretty upset about it.
Then one morning Hedwig had arrived with a not from Hagrid. It just said: "It's hatching." Harry was excited at the prospect at seeing a dragon hatch. Icarus had after all been fairly grown when Harry's dad, had shown Harry and Gohan to his cave so they could take care of him. He was so excited that when Ron and Hermione had started to argue about skipping herbology to see the egg hatch Harry didn't notice Malfoy until the blond nuisance had stopped and turned his head to listen into the argument.
"Shhh," Harry whispered and grabbed his two friends by the collar to drag them away from Malfoy's prying ears. They were both upset by the treatment, but all Harry had to do to cut off their complaints was to whisper the blond Slytherin's name. How much had he heard, they all wondered silently.
The argument hadn't ended there however. Ron and Hermione had argued, if a little more discreetly than before, all the way to Herbology. In the end they decided to visit Hagrid during their break that morning.
When the bell rang they dropped everything and ran to Hagrid's hut. Harry had to remind himself not to go too fast. They were immediately ushered in when they arrived and sat around Hagrid's table looking at the egg that now had several large cracks in it.
For several minutes they watched as the egg made small movements and listed to the strange clicking and cracking sounds. Eventually the egg was nearly split in half and a black form emerged. It was wrinkled all over and had two large spinney wings that were much larger than the rest of its body. The baby dragon had only the barest hints of horns and glowing red eyes.
The young dragon took its first stumbling steps and sneezed, sending sparks out of its snout. Harry laughed it was so cute.
"Isn't he beautiful," Hagrid murmured and reached out to stroke the baby dragon which snapped at his fingers. "Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!"
Harry didn't know where Hagrid had gotten that idea from, but before he could say anything more Hagrid went white and ran for the door. "What is it?" Harry asked worried.
"There was a kid lookin' through the gap in the curtains. He's runnin' back up ter the school."
Harry appeared outside the hut in an instant. He couldn't see the student's face, but he recognized him instantly. It was Malfoy.
Harry knew he could catch up to the fleeing boy in an instant, but Harry held himself back. It wasn't out of fear of revealing his abilities, but because he wasn't sure what he should do. He could grab Malfoy and be in the forbidden forest threatening him before anyone knew what was happening. But would that even help or would it make Malfoy even more likely to try and cause trouble? And more importantly would it be right? Malfoy definitely had no business snooping around Hagrid's or trying to get the game keeper or them into trouble, but Hagrid was breaking the law. Would Harry be justified? Furious at the whole situation Harry stood rigid staring at Malfoy's retreating form while his robes flapped wildly around him.
Hagrid was too distraught to have noticed Harry's teleportation like movement out the door or the quiet growl that instinctively escaped Harry's angry throat. Harry didn't stop glaring at Malfoy until he heard Hermione trying to sooth Hagrid and bring him back into his hut.
The three of them spent every night for the next week with Hagrid in his hut helping him take care of his dragon. Hagrid had named him Norbert, but even Hagrid's enthusiasm about his beloved pet was tainted by the shadow of what might happen if Malfoy told anyone.
They spent their time helping a very haggard Hagrid take care of little Norbert; and of course trying to convince Hagrid to give up his darling dragon. Hagrid was grateful for what help he cold get even if it did come at the price of his three young friends trying to tell him to give up his beautiful baby. The truth was Norbert kept him so busy he'd been unable to perform many of his duties at Hogwarts. Little Norbert needed him so constantly that he couldn't do much else. Which was why he couldn't just let him go into the wild, without him the poor little baby would be helpless.
Over the week Harry, Ron and Hermione had offered a lot of suggestions, but nothing they could think of would keep both Norbert and the people in the surrounding area safe. Harry had eventually talked about his and his brother's secret pet Icarus, but when their dad had left them Icarus he'd been big enough to be on his own for most of the day. But now Icarus was so big and took care of himself, he lived in a cave a ways from their house and he and Gohan just visited and played with him. The dragon was more of a friend than a pet now.
Unfortunately for Norbert, even if Hogwarts was in a fairly secluded forested area, it was still a school filled with hundreds of students next to a small village. The village, Hogsmeade was the only all wizard settlement in Britain and a dragon flying around the hills would undoubtedly be noticed and cause a panic that could end in Norbert being killed by the Ministry as a dangerous creature.
Harry had suggested sending little Norbert, who wasn't quite so little as he had grown to three times his size in the week since he'd hatched, to Gohan. But Harry had quickly realized that until Norbert was bigger Gohan would have to spend too much time taking care of him to keep it a secret from their mother, who would never allow even a pet to keep Gohan away from his studies that long.
"It's really too bad we can't send him to you're brother," Ron mumbled petulantly. He seemed to think that Harry's brother was the best option they had come up with so far.
"My brother…" Harry racked his brain for some way that would allow them to send Norbert to Gohan before it was too late. "Charlie!" Harry exclaimed
"That's my brother not your's" Ron looked at Harry like he was going bonkers.
"Exactly! Don't you see?" Harry said excitedly.
"What about Ron's brother?" Hermione interrupted. She didn't like being left out of the loop.
"He's a dragon keeper in Romania, but…" Ron started to explain, but Harry interrupted him.
"See, Hagrid," Harry smiled at his enormous friend, "Charlie could look after Norbert for you."
"That's great," Hermione agreed, but Hagrid didn't look very pleased.
"Oh, Hagrid," Harry reached over and did his best to wrap an arm around one Hagrid's massive arms in a comforting way. "We can't take him right away. We have to owl Charlie to see if he can do it. And Norbert will have to be a bit bigger before he can travel all the way to Romania won't he?"
Marble size tears glistened around Hagrid's eyes only to be shaken off his face when Hagrid blew his nose loudly into an enormous handkerchief. "I always knew I'd have ter give him up, but I never thought it'd be so sad." Hagrid wiped his nose and eyes.
"I know Hagrid," Harry rubbed the forlorn man's arm. "I wish he could stay here with you forever too, but there's no place where Norbert can fly without some one seeing and getting him hurt. We'd have to try and stop him from flying and I could never take that away from anyone." Harry looked despondent over the very thought of never being able to fly again.
"Yer right 'Arry," Hagrid was staring intently at Norbert when answered. "Norbert deserves the skies and if Charlie can give that ter 'em than tha's exactly where he'll go. It's jus'," Hagrid sniffled loudly and grabbed Harry into a hug that might have injured someone weaker than Harry. "I never thought it woul' hurt so much."
Once they left Hagrid's they decided that despite the delay it might make sending Harry's homework back home they needed an owl they could be sure wasn't being tracked by anything, so they sent Hedwig with their request to Charlie. They spent the next week on pins and needles waiting for Charlie's response. Harry made sure that he spent as much time as he could spare playing with Norbert and being there with Hagrid who was distraught over the loss of his precious baby. Even with all the homework and approaching finals Harry made it over to Hagrid's hut most every night. And when he couldn't he made sure that at least one of them was there for Hagrid every night.
Hermione wasn't pleased with the amount of study time Harry was missing to visit Hagrid. And one Wednesday night after everyone else had left the common room she told him so.
"Hermione, I won't ever willingly let my friends down," Harry explained gently. "Hagrid is hurting so I'm going to help him as much as I can. I believe in doing what's right even when it makes things more difficult for me. I'll find a way…"
Harry was interrupted when the portrait hole opened up and a grimacing Ron removed Harry's invisibility cloak. Norbert had bitten his hand while he had been feeding him crate loads of dead rats and now it was wrapped up in one of Hagrid's giant handkerchiefs.
"It bit me!" Ron ranted. "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit."
"That's because to Hagrid it is," Harry responded.
By the look on Ron and even Hermione's face they definitely didn't agree.
"Well do you think that a kitten would be a cute pet?" Harry asked.
Hermione's face immediately softened thinking about how loveable and cute a kitten would be, but Ron wanted to argue. "Yah, but a kitten doesn't have a giant mouth full of teeth so sharp that they could bite your hand off."
"Maybe not to you," Harry replied. "But I bet Scabbers would think that a kitten was pretty horrible. Especially when it got bigger and Scabbers started looking like a good meal."
Hermione seemed to understand, but Ron didn't look convinced. Harry would have explained more, but Hedwig had returned with Charlie's response and was tapping at the window. Without a word Harry went to the window and let Hedwig in, taking the letter she was carrying and stroking her feathers affectionately.
Their arguments forgotten the three of them crowded around the letter:
Dear Ron,
How are you? Thanks for the letter – I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon.
Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark.
Send me an answer as soon as possible.
Love,
Charlie
"You recon the cloak will cover the two of us and Norbert?" Ron asked, obviously excited at the prospect of getting rid of the dragon.
Unfortunately things didn't go as well as Ron would have liked. By the time he'd woken up the next morning his hand had doubled in size. He tried to ignore it but by mid day it had turned a sickening green color and they didn't dare ignore it no matter what the chances were that Madam Pomfrey would be able to tell what it was.
Harry would have liked to see Ron immediately, but didn't think they'd be able to get out of class. So He and Hermione visited him as soon as their classes were over. It seemed that classes however hadn't kept Malfoy from showing up to taunt their friend.
"I shouldn't have hit him at the match," Ron moaned. "That's why he's doing this."
"I don't know," Harry replied. "From what I heard he deserved it. And we can try and figure out a way to teach him not to pick on people after this is all over Saturday at midnight.
Ron shut up in his bed at Harry's words. "Saturday at midnight," Ron said a little more loudly than Harry would like. "Oh no, oh no…Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey that he needed to borrow a book so he stole one, and it was the one that had the letter from Charlie in it!"
Suddenly there was a loud slam that interrupted anything else Ron might have said. Ron and Hermione looked toward the noise to see the Hospital wing's door slam back closed. That was when they noticed that Harry had disappeared.
The bang however had attracted Madam Pomfrey. "What is all this noise about?" the Matron glared at Ron and Hermione before looking around the room for their missing friend. "Tell Mister Potter that if he cannot use the doors like a civilized person he'll not be allowed back in the hospital wing." The matron huffed and was about to leave.
"He was just in a hurry, he said he had to really use the bathroom," Ron tried to give an excuse.
"I'm sure it won't happen again," Hermione added.
"Just remind him to be quiet in the hospital wing, sick people need their rest," the anger had left the matron's voice as she turned around and returned to her office.
They didn't have to wait as long as they would have expected. Just a few minutes after Madam Pomfrey had returned to her office Harry returned, walking sedately through the door.
"Did you get it back? Had he read it?" Ron asked eagerly.
"No," Harry sighed. "I think he was in his common room. I followed him, but all I found were stone walls."
"Wait a minute," Hermione said. "How could you have followed Malfoy, and if you did how could you not tell were the entrance to his common room was."
"I can sense a person's energy, remember?" Harry whispered. "Unfortunately I've been around Malfoy enough in class that I can recognize the scummy feel to his aura. I followed that, but no matter where I moved I couldn't find an entrance."
"Well our common room is hidden, why wouldn't theirs be?" Hermione asked reasonably.
"That's just it," Harry replied. "There were no portraits, no suits of armor and the tapestries didn't have anything behind them. It's hidden even better than ours and if he's gotten the letter into his common room it's probably too late anyway."
"That's it," Ron waived his hands in despair. "We're done for."
"Well it's too late to change anything now," Hermione declared. "We can't get another letter to Charlie in time. Besides we've got the invisibility cloak. Malfoy doesn't know about that."
"That's right," Harry tried to reassure Ron. "And I've got a couple of tricks of my own."
Ron wasn't convinced and when Saturday rolled around he was still in the hospital wing, so Harry and Hermione went down to Hagrid's hut alone. Harry had tried to convince her that he was strong enough to carry the dragon on his own, but Hermione had insisted that she go with him to help.
It had been the first time they'd gone back since they told Hagrid about Charlie's letter the Thursday before. Norbert was getting a bit rough so Hagrid didn't let them come back to help with him. Hagrid said it was just a stage and he was being playful. Harry thought he was starting to get too big to be cooped up in even Hagrid's giant sized hut.
They got to the hut late, because they had to wait for Peeves to get out of the entrance hall before they could open the door. The poltergeist was playing tennis against the wall until Harry finally got tired of it and levitated the ball, bouncing it rapidly around the hall and then down an upstairs corridor as hard as he could. Peeves left yelling and chasing after the ball.
"That was brilliant Harry," Hermione whispered once they got halfway across the lawn.
"It was nothing," Harry replied.
Hagrid was outside his hut patting a large crate with growling and scratching sounds coming from it. "He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," Hagrid managed to say through his tears. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."
Harry felt sorry for Hagrid, so he tried not to laugh when the sounds of tearing cloth escaped the cloth just after Hagrid had mentioned the teddy bear that Harry suspected had just been destroyed.
"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry and Hermione threw the invisibility cloak over the crate and climbed underneath it too. "Mommy will never forget you!" Hagrid called after his baby dragon as Harry and Hermione hefted it and began moving back toward the school.
At first Hermione insisted on helping Harry carry it, but as they began to climb the second flight of stairs she gave in and let Harry carry it on his shoulder as she moved under the cloak as close to him as she could.
They made it through the school easily after that until they came to the corridor underneath the tallest tower. Two figures seemed to be struggling in the darkness ahead of them. Harry was about to put the crate down and stop the fight when a lamp turned on.
Professor McGonagall dressed only in a bathrobe with her hair in a net had Malfoy by the ear. "Detention and twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you…?" Professor McGonagall looked furious with Malfoy.
"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming–he's got a dragon!" Malfoy cried and for once Harry was glad at how incredible his adventures tended to be.
"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on, I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"
Harry tried not to laugh as Professor McGonagall dragged Mafloy away by the ear. It would be bad to give his location away right now.
Careful to stay under the cloak, Harry and Hermione rushed up the stairs as soon as Professor McGonagall was out of site. Once at the top Hermione threw off the cloak and kicked up her feet in a short happy dance.
"Malfoy's got detention, I could sing," she said happily.
"Better wait until we get back unless you want us to join him," Harry replied quietly.
They had to wait several long minutes before Charlie's friends arrived. They were somewhat outlandish at least by wizarding standards. His mother would have probably thought they looked like hooligans. But they were definitely friendly
They came in on brooms and after brief introductions Harry and Hermione strapped Norbert's crate to the harness that Charlie's friends had rigged between their brooms.
After a bit of ribbing about what a strong boy Harry was Charlie's friends flew of, taking Norbert over the horizon. Harry and Hermione felt light now that that burden had been taken off their shoulders. And Malfoy was in detention. Hermione practically skipped down the stairs.
When they got to the bottom they nearly ran into a dark figure. Filch's face loomed over them. "Well, well, well," he leered, "we are in trouble."
Harry berated himself as Filch led them through the castle. How could he have been so stupid as to leave his invisibility cloak in the tower? It had belonged to his birth father! He'd been so relieved that he'd forgotten that they weren't safe until they got back and he hadn't even sensed Filch coming. He was turning out to be helpless without Mr. Piccolo to tell him what to do.
Determined to prove he could take care of himself, Harry marched boldly into McGonagall's office. She wasn't there, Filch told them to stay while he went to get her. Harry was half tempted to go back to his dorms, but didn't knowing that he'd just get in more trouble. And he didn't want to abandon Hermione.
When McGonagall returned she was leading Neville Longbottom into the room. "Harry!" Neville called. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag…"
"Shhh!" Harry sent telepathically into Neville's mind. He wasn't sure it would work on a non-martial artist, but it apparently did, because Neville stopped.
McGonagall however looked furious. Harry had only seen his mother look like that when someone had tried to hurt him or Gohan.
"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves." McGonagall demanded.
Harry didn't know what to say. He couldn't mention anything about Hagrid or the dragon, so he silently stared McGonagall in the eye. Hermione however stared at the professor's slippered feet. It was the first time Harry had ever seen her not answered a teacher's question.
"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on," Professor McGonagall started to pace in front of them. "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"
"What?!" Harry yelled scaring Neville who jerked back and started to cry. Even Professor McGonagall missed a step. "You immediately side with a known bully over people who you are supposed to be standing up for and who have risked their lives to protect the students of this school. I am nothing like Malfoy. I do not bully people and especially not my friends."
"Oh," McGonagall looked like she had caught him at something. "And what about Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Longbottom."
"I would be honored to call Neville Longbottom my friend," Harry replied. "I have nothing but respect for any man as brave as him."
McGonagall looked shocked at Harry's words so he continued. "During the last Quidditch match Neville attacked two people he knew he couldn't defeat to keep them from beating up someone. He ended up unconscious in the hospital wing when he could have let them beat up someone else. I respect that kind of courage."
Professor McGonagall was shocked and so was Neville. No one had ever considered him brave before. Neville Longbottom's eyes were red and swollen from the crying, but he stood taller now than Harry had ever seen him stand.
"As for Malfoy," Harry continued. "When Ron hurt his hand Malfoy decided to skip class to taunt him. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey that he needed to borrow a book from Ron to get in so he stole one of his books when he left. Apparently Ron left a letter from one of his brothers in that book that told him we would have to be out late tonight. And apparently Malfoy wanted to make sure someone found us, because the last time he tried to trick us into being out late Filch didn't catch us like he planned."
"And what do you think gave you the right to be out this late?" Professor McGonagall asked acidly.
"There was something more important than the school rules, so I willfully broke them. Punish me for being out late if you want, I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't willing to accept the consequences, but don't you ever accuse me of acting like that that coward Malfoy!"
Minerva McGonagall would later be very impressed by Mr. Potter's courage and conviction in not only accepting his punishment but looking her in the eye. When she asked if he spoke for all of them neither Mr. Longbottom nor Miss Granger looked up at her as they nodded. But she was not impressed right now. She was furious.
"All right then, Detention!" Professor McGonagall all but snarled. "…for all three of you. Yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous. And you, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr. Potter…" McGonagall shook her head unable to find words to express herself through her anger.
"And fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor," She added sternly.
"Fifty?" Hermione squeaked.
"Apiece," McGonagall added.
Hermione and Neville looked away abashedly. But Harry stood still, silently meeting Professor McGonagall's eyes.
Professor McGonagall ordered them back to their dorms. Harry watched Hermione and Neville walk dejectedly. They didn't say a word to each other. Harry thought about reminding Hermione that she didn't have to come with him tonight, but he thought that at the moment that would be more like rubbing it in than comforting her.
When they got to their dorms Harry could tell Neville was restless and unable to sleep. Harry was sure that the anger he was radiating through his ki due to Professor McGonagall's accusations wasn't helping. Eventually they got to sleep. But the next day Harry learned what Neville had been nervous about.
Most of Gryffindor had been shocked when they'd walked past the giant hourglass that recorded their house points to see that they had 150 less. But word quickly got around that Harry Potter and a couple of his first-year friends had lost them.
People that had been chasing him through the halls to catch a glimpse of him now despised him. People that had congratulated him for his quidditch victories openly mocked him. And it wasn't even just the Gryffindors, the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had wanted to see Slytherin fall nearly as badly and were now openly hostile.
The only people whose opinion of him didn't seem to change were the Slytherens, except they were even more open in their mocking. On the way to breakfast he'd passed a group of them that had openly cheered for him thanking for his help toward their seemingly immanent victory with the house cup.
At least Ron stood by him. But the same could not be said of all the Weasleys. Perfect Percy stopped Harry and Ron outside the great hall on their way to dinner that day to scold them. "How could you be so irresponsible?" he asked. "How do you expect to ever become a prefect? Don't you know you're a role model? Don't you care about Gryffindor?"
Maybe if Percy had accosted him on a normal day or after he'd started to get used to the treatment he was receiving from the students and even a couple of teachers. But Harry had endured a horrible day where the few students who would talk to him had openly mocked and berated him. Even a couple of professors had looked down on him disappointedly. Fortunately he hadn't had to endure potions class or Filch might have spent his evening scraping Percy off the floor.
"No," Harry said loudly but then began to yell furiously. "If Gryffindor is filled with cowards who care more about appearances than protecting those they are supposed to protect and punish them without seeking the truth just to get ahead, than I have no respect at all for Gryffindor!"
Harry's words carried to probably many more people than he'd have liked, but he was too angry to care. Without looking back to see if Ron was following Harry stomped off past the Great Hall and ended up down in the kitchens to eat dinner surrounded by people who didn't hate him.
But Harry wasn't the only one to face student body's ire. Neville if it were possible sank even deeper into his shell than ever before. And Hermione stopped answering questions in class unless specifically directed to. She just hunched over her books and tried to keep from being noticed. Harry told her that by not doing anything to earn points she was just letting them slip even further behind. But Hermione just couldn't bring herself to do anything but mope.
After a couple of days of this treatment Harry offered to resign from the team, but Wood refused. "What good'll that do? How are we going to get any points back if we can't win at Quidditch?" he'd asked. But despite Wood's seeming acceptance practices became nearly as torturous as potions. No one on the team would speak with him unless they had to and then never by name.
Having been so sorely punished for his good deed, Harry reevaluated his priorities. He decided that in the end Hagrid had been more important than some school rules and so he tried to bear his punishment and derision with dignity. But he hadn't been asked to protect the sorcerer's stone and it was being watched over by professors who knew far more about magic than he did. And what would it really matter if it was stolen? Snape would be rich and live for as long as it took for someone to steel the stone from him. It was nothing earth shattering or particularly sinister and Snape would probably retire and live in a lap of luxury. Snape could have the stone Harry decided if it would get the greasy haired man out of the school; especially after how vicious he'd been in class lately.
Snape was taking more and more points from Harry for seemingly inane things. He'd been told he was breathing too loudly. Harry asked how he should breathe around the potion and how it affected it and if it should be different for different potions he'd gotten even more points deducted for cheek. The more points he lost, even if it wasn't very many the angrier the students got. Harry wasn't sure if Snape knew this and was trying to prolong his misery or if he was simply trying to make an end of the year push to keep Slytherin in the lead for the house cup.
And the mind attacks were getting worse. Now his attacker, who he was still certain was Snape, would only stay in his mind a few moments after Harry had focused on his painful memory. And Harry was getting good at this. But since the attacker didn't stay he could come back repeatedly throughout the class, especially when he was in the middle of something delicate. Harry left every potions class with phantom pains all over his body and was starting to wonder if that wasn't Snape's intent. He just hoped that the potions professor was too.
His resolution was sorely tested weeks later when he was passing a classroom and heard Professor Quirrell's voice. "No…no…not again, please," he begged but a moment later agreed. "All right…all right…" the man sobbed.
Harry barely avoided the door when the man hurried out. The defense professor was straightening his turban and looked to have been crying. Harry hated to see people bullied. On instinct he opened up his senses and rushed into the room, but the room was empty and he couldn't sense anyone nearby. There was another door on the far side left open, but if someone else had been in the room they must have gotten away fast or be able to hide their presence from him. Both thoughts disturbed him.
When Harry told Ron and Hermione what had happened, the consensus was that Snape must have finally gotten to Quirrell. After briefly discussing it Hermione wanted to go to Dumbledore. It was what they should have done ages ago she told them.
"I McGonagall won't believe us over Malfoy than Dumbledore's definitely not going to take our word over one of the teachers," Harry answered.
"But what if we…" Ron interjected.
"No," Harry cut him off. "The stone is guarded by competent witches and wizards acknowledged as some of the best in their field. It's their responsibility let them do it. What's the worst that could happen if Snape got it anyway? He floods the gold market? At least it'll get him out of here." With that Harry opened up one of his books and began reading.
The next morning Harry, Hermione and Neville each got notes that read:
Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.
Professor McGonagall
Harry thought it was ironic that the detention looked like it would keep them out after curfew. He was half tempted to complain, but decided he was just being petulant and he refused to do anything other than accept his punishment with dignity. Hagrid was worth it he told himself.
When 11 o'clock rolled around Harry, Hermione, Neville and Malfoy, who Harry had forgotten even had a detention, were escorted by Filch out of the castle. As usual Filch threatened them with the usual punishments. He was a fountain of knowledge about medieval European torture techniques.
"Oh yes, He muttered excitedly. "Hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me... 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, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed... Right, off we go, and don't think of running off, now, it'll be worse for you if you do."
Harry was trying to ignore the grouchy caretaker, but as excited as he sounded Harry was worried that their punishment was going to be exceptionally bad. It made Harry nervous. Neville was kept sniffing, apparently doing his best not to cry. Hermione looked dejected while Malfoy did his best to act aloof.
Clouds moved across the moon shadowing them in darkness, but just up ahead Harry could see the lights in Hagrid's hut.
"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."
Harry recognized that voice. It was Hagrid. Detention with Hagrid might be fun. He must have grinned, because Filch started scolding again. "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy! It's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece."
Neville moaned and Malfoy stiffened fearfully. Harry laughed out loud. He'd wanted to explore the forbidden forest since he'd heard about it.
Everyone looked at Harry incredulously. "But Harry," Hermione began. "It's off limits…"
"We can't go in there you fool!" Malfoy interrupted. "There are werewolves in there!"
Everyone watched Harry cautiously as he looked up at the moon. "Sounds like fun," he smiled broadly when he looked back down and began to shuck off his robe leaving him wearing a pair of dark pants with a sleeveless shirt. A flick of his wrist and is wand jumped from his robe pocket to his hand and he slipped into his cloth wrapped belt behind his back where it would be out of his way, but he could get to it easily.
"Harry," Hermione sounded scandalized.
But before she could lecture Harry on his manners Hagrid appeared out of the gloom. "Abou' time, I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Hermione?" Hagrid smiled down at his young friends.
"Shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid," Filch said, scowling, "they're here to be punished, after all."
"That's why yer late, is it?" Hagrid asked, frowning down at Filch. "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here." Hagrid looked about ready to shoo the caretaker away.
"I'll be back at dawn," Filch said as he turned around. "For what's left of them," he added theatrically. Harry just laughed again. It seemed to have the double effect of upsetting Filch and scaring Malfoy.
Malfoy turned to face Hagrid. "I'm not going in there," he said quickly.
Hagrid told him that he was or he was going to be expelled. Harry thought it was great to see Hagrid pushing Malfoy around for a change after all the problems Malfoy had made for Harry's giant friend.
After leading them up to the edge of the forest Hagrid knelt down and pointed at a dark, thick silvery liquid splattered on some trees and the ground. It was unicorns blood the gamekeeper informed them. Something had been killing unicorns and it looked like it had struck again. Hagrid believed that it might have been still alive and they were going to have to find it and most likely put it out of its misery.
They split into two groups. Neville and Malfoy went one way and Hagrid took Harry and Hermione the other. They agreed to send up green sparks when they found the unicorn and red if there was trouble. Hagrid made them practice before they finally went into the forest.
After following the trail for a few minutes Harry decided to ask, "Hagrid, do you think could be attacking the unicorns?"
"Don' rightly know Harry," Hagrid replied. "Unicorns are incredibly fast, not many things tha could catch one. And they're powerful magical creatures. Tell the truth, I never knew one ter be hurt before."
"A werewolf couldn't have done it than?" Harry asked.
"Nah, too slow," Hagrid dismissed.
"Are there even any werewolves in the forest you reckon?"
Hagrid started to answer but stopped when he heard something. "Get behind that tree," He yelled and grabbed them when they hesitated and set them behind a large oak tree.
"Stay there," he told them as he fitted an arrow in the crossbow he'd brought. The giant man stood protectively in front of Harry and Hermione brandishing a crossbow that Harry thought might have been considered a siege engine before Hagrid had acquired it.
Harry listened carefully, but could only hear what sounded like cloth being dragged over the leaves and grass. Reaching out with his senses Harry felt Hermione and Hagrid's comforting energies along with Neville and Malfoy's deeper in the forest and scores of weak powers all over the forest some benevolent or benign and others were vicious. But one was disgustingly evil and foul. Harry had felt energies that were filled with terrifying power and killing intent, but this one was different. Its taint wasn't from it's murderous intent or lust for power, there was something filthy about it that he'd never felt before.
Whatever it was, it was definitely magical. It had almost no living energy, but it was one of the most powerful magical presences he'd ever felt. But the magic felt diseased or rotten in a way he'd never encountered and he didn't really want to encounter again.
"I knew it" Hagrid growled to himself. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be."
"Should we follow it?" Harry whispered.
"Can't," Hagrid replied.
"I can," Harry said.
"How?" Hagrid whispered guardedly.
"I can sense it," Harry whispered.
"Better stick to the path an' find that unicorn," Hagrid decided
"All right," Harry agreed readily. He was very used to following other people in dangerous situations. "We can go now."
"Right, follow me, but careful, now." Hagrid motioned them on. From there they crept slowly down the path. Harry kept his senses open tracking the dark presence as it moved away and paying attention for anything else that might cross their path.
"Someone's coming," Harry whispered just before they saw a rustling in the trees in front of them.
Hagrid yelled, ordering whoever it was to come out where they could see them. What stepped out was a being unlike any Harry had ever seen. With the upper body of a man, the centaur was a horse from the waist down. He had a red beard and hair, which matched the shiny chestnut coat on his lower body and shiny red tail.
Hagrid recognized him and looked to be relieved. "Oh, it's you Ronan, how are yeh?"
The Centaur's voice was deep, but sounded sad when he greeted Hagrid. "Where you going to shoot me?" he asked.
"Nah," Hagrid's voice was friendly. "There's sumat loose in the forest, jus' bein' careful."
"This is Harry Potter an' Hermione Granger, by the way." Hagrid introduced them. "Students up at the school. An' this is Ronan, you two. He's a centaur."
"We'd noticed," said Hermione faintly. Harry wasn't certain in the light, but it looked like Hermione was blushing at the cetaur's bare chest.
"Good evening," Ronan said graciously. "Students, are you? And do you learn much, up at the school?"
Harry didn't know what to say to that. Hermione answered for them. "A bit," she said timidly.
"A bit. Well, that's something." Ronan smiled sadly before looking forlornly at the sky. "Mars is bright tonight."
"Yeah," Hagrid glanced up too, but he didn't seem to see what Ronan saw. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt—you seen anythin'?"
Harry noticed Ronan's shoulders and neck tensing as if he were gazing more intently at the stars in search of Hagrid's answer. "Always the innocent are the first victims. So it has been for ages past, so it is now."
To Harry it sounded as if Ronan could give them the wisdom of the stars, but Hagrid seemed less impressed. "Yeah, but have yeh seen anythin', Ronan? Anythin' unusual?"
"Mars is bright tonight," Ronan repeated, making Hagrid visibly impatient "Unusually bright."
Before Hagrid could try to coax more information from Ronan Harry spoke up. "Excuse me Ronan sir, have you seen anything that could help us protect the innocent? Do you know anything about what has been attacking the unicorns?"
Ronan took a few moments to respond before he simply told them that the forest hid many secrets. Harry was about to try again when another centaur entered their clearing. Hagrid knew this one as well. His name was Bane and like Ronan all he seemed to be able to tell them was that Mars was bright.
After a fruitless conversation and a request for the centaurs to tell them if they saw anything Hagrid led them away. "Never, try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur." Hagrid told them once they were out of sight of the centaurs. He sounded annoyed. "Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anything closer'n the moon."
"Are there many of them in here?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, a fair few... Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, centaurs... they know things... jus' don' let on much."
Harry wondered if they were allowed to. To him it seemed that the centaurs had acted like they needed to be careful about how much they said.
They kept looking, following the trail deeper into the forest. Harry had lost track of the corrupted presence, but he could feel it was out there somewhere. He was trying to locate it again when he felt Neville's energy ripple.
"Trouble," Harry said as he looked toward where he could sense Neville and Malfoy. There were red sparks.
"You two wait here! Stay on the path, I'll come back for yeh!" Hagrid yelled as he barreled through the underbrush.
Harry considered following, he could get to his friends much faster than Hagrid could. But he didn't want to leave Hermione alone. Neville and Malfoy's energy hadn't been weakened, so they didn't seem to be hurt. Harry decided to wait until one of their energies weakened before he flew to them.
In the end it was just as well that he'd stayed. It was a false alarm. Malfoy had snuck up on Neville and scared him. Neville looked a little shaken up still, but Hagrid was furious.
"We'll be lucky ter catch anythin'; now, with the racket you two were makin'. Right, we're changin' groups. Neville, you stay with me an' Hermione, Harry, you go with Fang an' this idiot." Hagrid leaned over to whisper at him, "I'm sorry, but he'll have a harder time frightenin' you, an' we've gotta get this done."
"Don't worry Hagrid," Harry winked at him.
With a little reluctance Malfoy led the way back to the other trail, but once they were there he dropped to the back. Harry did his best to follow the trails with his eyes while trying to sense for anything that could be a dying unicorn or the dark presence from before. He was in charge now. Hagrid trusted him and Harry didn't want to mess up again.
Malfoy however wasn't helping his concentration. Harry managed to stop his taunting by asking about any werewolves he'd seen earlier that night.
"We didn't find any, you didn't see any did you?" Malfoy had tried to act casual, but Harry could tell he was afraid.
"No," Harry smirked to himself. "Unfortunately not, but we ran across this weird thing that sounded like it was a cloak being dragged on the ground rustling through the trees."
Unfortunately that hadn't kept Malfoy quiet, but he was no longer trying to bother Harry. The boy kept talking about everything he'd heard about lethifolds, which wasn't much, but he knew they were cloaks that floated on the ground and wrapped themselves around their victims absorbing them.
Harry had a lot of fun scaring Malfoy as they searched. He eventually had Malfoy talking about every terrible monster he'd ever heard of.
Harry was about to stop before they went into the clearing to avoid the filthy energy he had detected coming close to them when he saw it. "Look," Harry pointed at a slightly glowing white horse, which lay sprawled on the ground. Its slender legs pointed at odd angles and on the top of its delicate head it had a single golden horn.
It was dying. Harry could barely feel any energy coming from it. It was probably the saddest thing Harry had ever seen. He couldn't stop the tears that came to his eyes just looking at it.
Harry wanted to rush to the dying animal to try and help it, give it some of his energy, anything, but the corrupt energy was almost on top of them.
Then suddenly it floated into the clearing. Whatever it was it wore a cloak and had bony clawed hands. Harry couldn't see what its head looked like, because it was under a hood. It glided along the ground and began to drink from the dying unicorn's still bleeding side.
Malfoy screamed like a girl and ran, as did fang. But Harry was furious and began to scream as he raised his power level in preparation to attack the unicorn's enemy.
The noise attracted the hooded figure's attention and it turned its head to face them. Harry didn't see its face because pain erupted over his forehead. His scream became a strangled noise as Harry felt like his scar had been lit on fire.
Harry's power dropped, as he staggered back. The hooded figure stood up and began to move toward Harry who was quickly being blinded by pain. Behind him Harry could hear galloping hooves. Reaching toward the advancing figure Harry fired several blasts of white energy toward where he sensed the vile energy.
Something leapt over Harry's head and landed in front of him with a clatter of hooves and the pain in Harry's head faded.
It still took a few moments for Harry to see clearly and when he did he saw another centaur. His body was golden with bright white hair on his head and main. He looked younger than the others Harry had seen.
"Are you all right?" the centaur asked as Harry steadied himself on his feet.
"Yeah, thanks." Harry replied slightly breathlessly. "What was that?"
Like before this centaur didn't answer. But he wasn't looking up at the sky. Harry could see the centaurs shimmering blue eyes as it looked over Harry and rested on his forehead. His scar was bright red and irritated.
"You are the Potter boy," the centaur finally spoke startling Harry. He didn't know his fame extended beyond human witches and wizards. "You had better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time—especially for you. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way."
Harry was about to protest, but the centaur began to lower itself down so Harry could climb on "My name is Firenze," he said
Just as Harry had given in and was easing himself onto the centaur's back two more centaurs came charging into the clearing. It was the same two he'd run into earlier.
"Firenze!" Bane thundered furiously. Harry thought his name suited him. "What are you doing? Are you letting a Human on your back? Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?"
"Do you realize who this is?" Firenze asked more calmly, though Harry could tell he was agitated. "This is the Potter boy. The quicker he leaves this forest, the better."
"What have you been telling him?" growled Bane. "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?"
"I'm sure he did what he thought was best," Ronan said dejectedly as Harry began to ease himself back off the younger centaur.
Ronan's words made bane angry and he kicked out his back feet. "For the best! 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!"
But it seemed that Ronan's words infuriated Firenze, who reared up on his hind legs. Harry leapt of his back before he could be thrown and spun himself into a ball for a moment before landing a tree branch. It looked a lot more impressive than it was. Harry had flown a little to nudge his course through the air.
"Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze bellowed. "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."
That clicked with Harry. "What?!" he yelled from up in the tree. "You mean to tell me that you refuse to oppose any evil you see in the stars?!"
"Do not seek to counsel you're elders foal!" Bane yelled at him angrily.
"Humans are not taught as our foals are Bane, you cannot expect him to understand," Ronan tried to appease his seemingly short-tempered companion. Then he turned to Harry. "It is not possible to change what has been decreed by the heavens. And it is unwise to try young one," The centaur tried to sound consoling, but it just made Harry angrier.
"What does can and can not have to do with should and should not?" Harry asked angrily as he jumped down. "Have the heavens never shifted? Did they change before October 31st ten years ago or after? How about early last year did they portend destruction then or did they foretell my brother's victory?"
Bane reared up angrily, "I told you…" But bane stopped as Harry stared at him stonily and silently raised his power making his violent intent known. It seemed Bane recognized the universal signal for 'I'm going to kick you butt.'
"If you are all such cowards then I have no use for you," Harry said disgustedly, as he began to walk away from the clearing toward were he sensed Hagrid.
"It takes courage to accept one's fate," Ronan called sadly at Harry's retreating form.
"But it takes more courage to protect those you love with your life," Harry called back. "We still call the first type cowards."
Harry's movements were tense. He couldn't believe a whole race could be so fatalistic that they would just give in to evil like that. Well it seemed that at least Firenze was willing to fight for what was right. He'd need to not base his beliefs about a whole race by the actions of a few if he didn't want to become a bigot.
It was thoughts of Firenze that made him notice that the centaur was following him moving agitatedly through the brush.
"It would be faster if you rode," Firenze stopped when he noticed Harry was looking at him.
"I can run fast enough," Harry said cryptically.
"There is still danger. It would be faster if carried you," Firenze repeated and began to lower himself.
"But it would be fastest if I carried you," Harry smirked and began to run through the forest.
Firenze was very impressed when he had a hard time keeping up with the Potter boy. He could tell that Harry was actually holding back.
After a fair distance Firenze slowed down and Harry stopped to let him catch up.
"Harry Potter, do you know what Unicorn's blood is used for?" The centaur asked when he caught up.
"No," Harry replied, surprised by the question. "We've used their horns and tail hair in potions so far."
"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," Firenze said sagely. Harry believed it. He'd felt terrible just looking at the dying unicorn. He didn't think he could ever bring himself to kill one. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. 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 pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."
Harry paused taking it all in before he spoke. "But who would be willing to do such a thing then," Harry asked confused. "Death isn't that bad."
"Perhaps not," Firenze odded, "unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else—something that will bring you back to full strength and power—something that will mean you can never die. Mr. Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"
Harry stood very still until he suddenly jerked with understanding. "The Sorcerers' Stone," he said quietly. "But who…?" Harry was confused. Snape didn't look sick.
"Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"
When put that way Harry could think of someone who had clung to life. He remembered Hagrid sitting on the couch in his mother's living room. "Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion… Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on."
Just the thought of his biological parent's murderer stirred an anger deep in his soul. He stood there silently as his hair billowed in the wind.
"Harry! Harry, are you all right?" Harry was brought out of his reverie by Hermione's call. She was running down the path with Hagrid behind her.
"I'm fine," Harry called. "The unicorn's over that way," Harry pointed toward where he'd come from. He reached out with his senses to see if he could feel it and couldn't. "I think it's dead now."
"This is where I leave you," Firenze spoke quietly as Hagrid hustled off to check on the unicorn. "You are safe now."
"Good luck, Harry Potter," Firenze said as he walked away. "The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times."
When they finally got back to the common room they found Ron asleep in one of the chairs. Neville went straight up to bed and Harry woke Ron, who muttered something bout Quidditch fouls.
Once he was awake Harry told both him and Hermione about the centaurs and Voldemort. "This changes everything," Harry said. "Snape wants the stone for Voldemort. That makes more sense. And Voldemort is out in the forest waiting."
"Stop saying that name," Ron begged fearfully."
Harry however refused to be afraid of the man let alone his name. "Bane was furious...he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show that Voldemort's coming back...No wait! That coward thought Voldemort was going to kill me tonight!" Harry was incensed. "I won't go down that easily."
They spent much of the rest of the night talking about what they could do, but they were at as much of an impasse as they were before. So with nothing they could do unless they could catch Snape or Voldemort in the act they went to bed.
But the night had one more surprise for Harry. When he opened the curtains on his bed, which he didn't remember closing, he found his invisibility cloak folded neatly on the bed. There was a note on top written in the same loopy handwriting. It read:
Just in case.