He held up his hands, willing himself into a calm and soothing stance. His feet were close together. His shoulders were small and relaxed. His head was down.
The creature he faced let out a strangled noise, but accepted his presence. So he proceeded forwards, hands still up, until he was close enough to touch. He stalled there, letting it tilt its head to close the distance.
For what he could see, the creature resembled a horse, but black, starved, and winged. This one in particular was injured. Its features seemed tortured by the pain, and standing up already seemed too much of an effort. He stroked the creatures neck, delicately feeling the delicate bones under the thin layer skin. The creature seemed the tiniest bit soothed.
He encouraged it to lay down, and sat on his knees besides its head. Never did he cease his stroking.
Another strangled sound echoed through the forest. And another one. He felt the drumming of the hooves before he heard the clacking sounds. The neck under his hand strained to tilt the head again. The creature let out a small pleased sound before its breathing stilled.
Just then a herd of similar creatures appeared through the wall of trees. His presence was a threat to them instead of the soothing source it was for their deceased cousin. Suddenly he was running away from a herd of protective, winged horses.
He was a fast runner. He could outrun Clover, Nessie, and Fern, but he never was able to keep up with their stable horses, even in the thickest parts of forest. He would never outrun this herd.
They came closer by the second. It didn't take a minute for him to know they would catch up any moment. He couldn't imagine what a herd of grieving, magical horses would do to him. He panicked, stopped running, and turned around.
Just as the leading member proceeded to jump him, fire erupted. The bright flames blinded his dark-accustomed sight.
Before his sight returned, he felt hands wrap around his arms, dragging him. He trashed in the other person's hold, kicking and hitting.
"This is surviving!?" someone shouted above the roaring of fire.
He stopped thrashing, just as his ears and eyes both came to the conclusion that it was just Harry. "Yes, it is!" he shouted back, defiantly.
The flames disappeared as suddenly as they came, leaving him colder than he was before Harry's appearance. The winged horses were gone by now. He stood up unsteadily, sight still not what it used to be, but good enough to read Harry's obviously enraged expression.
"I told you not to come back here." Harry was barely not shouting, but gradually released his hold on him.
"And I should follow you every wish?"
"You picked a bad night." Harry laughed darkly, reinforced his hold again, and started walking. "We're going to visit headmaster McGonagall."
"You said yourself you were breaking as many rules as me."
"I lied." Harry suddenly held up his wand, focusing his gaze to the same spot.
Glenn had heard it as well. The sound of breaking twigs which some days ago had betrayed his position to Harry now betrayed their anonymous companion.
Suddenly the light of a spell raced towards them. Before Glenn had thought to react, Harry produced a shield and cast another dozen spells back. They waited alarmed after Harry's attack of spells, but no more attacks came.
At least, from in front of them. A purple light rushed in from behind them and hit him in his calve, creating a cutting pain. He didn't see the extent of his damage in the darkness and panic around him, but he felt blood.
Harry was now reacting to spells from all around them. Every single beam of light came out of nowhere. They only had a wall of dark to react from. Yet, every single beam was halted by a flick of Harry's wand and reciprocated by a spell. Neither came to more harm.
The attacks slowly stopped coming, as the assassins were taken out one by one. Once they were calmly in the dark again, Harry moved. He followed, limping.
They stopped at a cloaked body. Harry breathed in heavily while removing the dark mask the corpse was wearing. Glenn stared at the dismissed mask of the Death Eater and unconsciously mimicked Harry's heavy breath.
He hadn't even finished releasing the air when he felt the thumping of hooves nearing once more, and rolled his eyes.
He ran a small fraction of a second before Harry did, and remained in the lead their entire sprint. It was only a matter of reaching the castle now. No more spells or fighting if they could accomplish that. Nothing complicated. Just running.
And so they did. They air quickly grew fresher as the density of trees decreased. Lights sparkled from above and ahead. A slight sense of déjà vu the scene gave him.
He wasn't expecting to fall this time, however. His head hit the ground hard. He looked through the sudden burst of pain at Harry who'd fallen over the same root as a result of following him too closely. Then he looked to the horses which were jumping over them and fleeing until the forest, at last, was silent and calm.
Harry laughed hysterically. He couldn't help from laughing himself, even as his eyes and mind started to black out.