Chapter 2

Everyone arrived at the grand, familiar castle and walked into the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony. Albus waved goodbye to Rose and Blake, then took a seat next to Tilly and Andrew at the Gryffindor table. James leaned in and asked, "Did you find Freida? I swear, the little guy is going to get hexed soon. And I may be the one doing the hexing!"

Still muddled over what had happened on the train, Albus just shrugged, not exactly listening. He'd been pensive the rest of the train ride after having changed into his robes. But, knowing better, no one questioned him, leaving him in peace.

James stopped trying to make conversation with his little brother, taking the hint, and turned to his new girlfriend. They'd been together for two weeks; but it was inevitable that he'd get bored of her and move on in a couple more weeks. After all, practically every girl vyed for his brother's attention, and James didn't disappoint. The muscular redhead was a ladies man through and through.

Headmaster Grendellyn rose and began to speak. His silver hair was tied in one long braid which shook ever so slightly when he talked. The wizard had a very enticing and intimidating presence. Yet, it was not enough to hold Albus Potter's attention because his mind soon wandered off, eyes absently gazing at the new students. He remembered being wide-eyed and fidgety as these first years were now. They were so anxious and excited; they had no idea what was in store for them.

After glancing across the faces of everyone, his eyes lingered on one in particular near the back at the Slytherin table. This guy was laughing quietly, a familiar evilish gleam in his intense silver eyes. His platinum blond hair hung in his face. The feature that stood out most, even from a distance, was his strong chin that offeset his cheekbones. Oh man, no! Stop these thoughts! I bet he has a nice body. Augh, shut-up Albus! Shut the bloody hell up! Albus cringed, but couldn't tear his eyes away.

Just then, Scorpius noticed Albus staring at him and smirked. It took a couple seconds before Albus realized Scorpius was staring at him as well. But when he did, Al's face immediately reddened and he looked away. Al thought he could hear faint laughter from the Slytherin table.

Albus waited a few minutes, feeling embarrassed and self-conscious, then peeked at Scorpius again; the Slytherin was still watching him, that same smirk in place. Albus sighed and turned back around, forcing himself to listen to Grendellyn.

---

"You feeling okay, mate? You were quiet all throughout dinner,"

Albus was walking to the commons with his friend, Andrew. Andrew had been his best friend since they'd met on the train their first year. He had dirty blond hair which was hard to notice because of his buzz cut. The guy was tall and lanky, standing at exactly 6'0". Albus, himself, was an average 5'10".

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've just been..thinking." Al gave his friend a reassuring smile, hoping he'd get the hint. But, alas, Andrew asked, "Thinking about what?" Andrew was a curious person by nature, and usually Albus liked this aspect of his friend because it made hanging out with him that much more amusing; they'd found all sorts of hidden places and things at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, right now was different. "It doesn't matter," Albus rushed. "Nothing important."

Andrew wanted to press things further or make a joke, but he decided it'd be in his best interest not to. "Well, whatever it is, stop! Get out of this rut mate because I found something you might be interested in."

Albus looked up, perplexed. What could he have possibly found in just the three minutes of free time we had? Sometimes-no, scratch that-most times, Al didn't understand his best friend. But he was intrigued, so he asked, "What is it?"

Andrew held his finger to his lips and whispered, "Not here. Tonight." This made Al roll his eyes, but smile nonetheless. Leave it to Andrew to find a way to cheer him up and get his mind off things without even doing anything but being himself.

---

The next day, Albus woke up bright and early. There weren't any classes for a few days; he woke up early for a different reason. Albus quietly dressed into his robes, careful not to wake anyone, then crept into the common room to wait for Andrew. His fellow sixth year friend told him yesterday about some horse-like creature he'd spotted near the Forbidden Forest. Albus had quite an interest in magical creatures, so this got him excited.

As he waited for Andrew, Albus inattentively looked at the paintings and portraits. Then there was one that peaked his interest. This portrait portrayed a man painting two men. The models weren't quite naked; only their torsos were showing bare skin. But what was interesting was that on the canvas, the two men looked almost identical. One looked happy and joyful whereas the other looked cyncial and somber. Albus peered closer and noticed that the two men were connected by their side and hands.

"Strange..how have I not seen this before?"

"Seen what?" A voice interrupted Albus' thoughts. He turned around, both relieved and startled to see that it was Andrew.

"Oh, um, this painting." Albus pointed to the one that had mystified him. Andrew looked at it for a brief three seconds, then shrugged and faced Albus again. "Maybe it's new," he said, disinterested.

Albus looked at it again. There was something familiar about the painting, but he couldn't quite place it. Unfortunately he could examine it no longer for Andrew was pulling him out of the Gryffindor chamber.

---

"You know we're not supposed to enter this forest, right?" Albus was always the voice of reason, whether he liked it or not; this was a quality that Andrew obviously lacked.

"That's never stopped us before. Besides, everyone's still sleeping. No one'll notice we're gone." Andrew started off for the forest so Al had no time to tell him that last time they went into the forest, they almost got caught by Filch. But, he decided to obey and go along with Andrew's plan, following after the rambunctious Gryffindor.

"I saw this creature grazing just inside the forest, and so its tracks should be fairly new."

"What'd it look like?"

"I only saw a glimpse, but it was shiny and light blue. I'm not sure though."

Albus searched his mind for a name to fit that slightly vague description. He'd read every magical creature book, having fallen in love with animals at age five when he got his first cat and owl.

"A unicorn, maybe?" That's the only creature he could think of which was shiny and blue.

Andrew turned, his eyes glistening and wide. "Think so? Oh wow, how wicked would that be?! I've always wanted to see a unicorn up close!"

Albus smiled and nodded; he was thinking the same thing. He, then, crouched down and got on his knees, examining the ground for hoof prints. Andrew did the same.

After a few minutes of searching the opening of the forest, Andrew called out, "I found something!"

Al ran over to his friend, and saw a shiny substance on Andrew's finger. He took the finger and sniffed it. It was unicorn blood. "There's definitely a unicorn here, but whether it's dead or alive, I'm not sure."

Andrew frowned, wiping the blood on a nearby leaf. "There's a trail of blood that way." He pointed to his right and there was, indeed, sparkling unicorn blood on the ground.

They followed it, going deeper into the forest. Albus was jittery and eager. I wonder what injured this unicorn. It couldn't have done much damage because the unicorn seemed to have been able to walk fine. But then they saw it. The magical horse was still beautiful and sparkling, even laying on the ground.

Both guys ran to the horse. It had no horn but a big, gashing hole and blood trickling down.

"Damn! Some git stole my idea to take the horn," Andrew exclaimed. Albus looked at his friend incredulously for a few moments, then shrugged. It was a good idea; unicorn horns could be sold for thousands upon thousands of galleons! It was just a bit sad that someone killed a poor unicorn for money.

"At least I can get some unicorn hair." Andrew went over to the tail and took out his wand to cut off a few strands of hair.

Albus began to laugh, "You're so odd!"

Andrew grinned, laughing as well. "Hey, it's not every day you see a unicorn. Why not take advantage of this opportunity?" Albus rolled his eyes, but went over to where Andrew was to get some hair for himself.