A/N: Re-uploaded for your enjoyment! Please review.
The few weeks until our detention passed rather quickly. The detention itself however was not so quick.
Filch gleefully escorted us across the darkening grounds to Hagrid's hut, where he met us with a lantern and his huge crossbow. He didn't look so happy at the loss of his pet, but still led us towards the Forest, ignoring Draco's complaints.
It was kind of amusing, watching Draco lose an argument with Hagrid, Harry and Hermione. Neville and I walked quietly behind the others. Fortunately for him, Ron missed out on this less-than-cheerful trip.
Once inside the Forest, which was absurdly dark, even for night time, Hagrid led us to a broken branch, which had a sticky silver substance dripping from it onto the ground.
"Right. This is what we're here for." Hagrid grunted, addressing us all. He dipped a few fingers into the substance and letting it run back off them. "Anyone know what this is?"
We all shook our heads. Even Hermione.
"That's unicorn blood, that is." Hagrid told us. "Poor thing has been stumbling about for days, badly hurt, by the looks of this."
"So are we looking for a hurt, or dead unicorn? Or just more blood?" I asked nervously. The dark woods around me made me nervous. There was something in these woods that badly injured a unicorn, and I know that I for one didn't want to encounter it.
"The unicorn." Hagrid clarified. "Now, Harry, Neville and Draco, you three go together, and Amy and Hermione, you two together. Fang an' me will form a third group."
Both Harry and Draco looked utterly disbelieving, Neville looked terrified, and Hagrid shot Harry an apologetic look.
"Off you go now." Hagrid shooed us away. Hermione and I started off into the darkness, wandering around with our wands out, at the ready. After a while, we began to relax slightly, as so far nothing had jumped out at us.
"Amy…" I heard from somewhere out in the darkness. I stopped, peering around.
"What is it?" Hermione asked. I shushed her.
"Amy…" I heard my name again.
I turned to Hermione. "Wait here, I'll just be a moment." I told her, and left her spluttering on the faint path, before she could stop me.
I walked along to where the voice had come from, my wand held high, at the ready. A cloaked figure reared up before me and quiet laughter reached my ears. The figure pushed back its hood.
"Going to try and hurt me, little Amy?" The Dark Lord asked, easily brushing away my wand. I paled, backing up a step, but he followed, ramming me against a tree. The movements looked odd, but I was too busy panicking to dwell on it. He took my left arm, rolling up my sleeve and pressing a wand to the mark there.
"I understand you've become quite close to your dear brother, Harry Potter." He explained. "I do hope you don't forget to whom you belong."
Pain flared, racing from my arm to my head, which began feeling as if were going to explode, or was on fire, or something equally, if not more, painful. I remember a scream renting the air – once again, it was mine – and his mocking laugh as he rolled my sleeve back down and disappeared into the darkness once again, drawing up his hood. Moments later, Hermione arrived at my side, to find me crumpled on the ground at the base of a tree, deathly pale and shaking.
"Amy! Amy, what happened?" She asked panicked and wide eyed, looking all around for whatever it was that scared me, as she helped me off the ground. Looking back at me, I shook my head, not going to tell her what it was.
"Oh, come on." She hissed. "It was clearly something. You're not that easily spooked."
"I-I'm not spooked." I lied, my brain foggy from receding pain. She looked at me disbelievingly.
"Suuure." She replied sarcastically. "I heard you scream. Harry and Hagrid probably did too."
As if on cue, Hagrid came crashing towards us.
"Amy!" He called, seeing me standing shakily, assisted by Hermione.
"I'm fine, really." I insisted. Moments later Draco came rushing through the trees with Neville right behind him, stammering something about the dead unicorn, a cloaked figure and Harry. Before any of us could move though, or even panic, Harry joined our gathering on the back of a blonde centaur. I sat back down at the base of the tree again, my head in my hands.
"Amy, are you alright?" Draco was at my side in an instant a hand on my shoulder. I felt Hermione step away in disgust.
"I'm fine." I replied, yet again. She snorted, not believing me.
"Really?" Harry asked.
"Really!" I said, standing back up and glaring at him. Pain flared in my head again, and I looked away from Harry. I thought I heard his mocking laughter drift back to me on the wind.
"You sure?" Hagrid asked. I glared at him too.
"Yes, I am most definitely sure. And can't we go back to the castle now that we found the unicorn?" I shrugged off Draco's hand storming back to the path.
About half an hour later, Harry, Hermione, Ron – who had been woken for this conversation – and I were sitting on comfortable chairs and couches in front of the Gryffindor common room fire.
"You mean You-Know-Who is out there, right now? In the Forest?" Hermione asked, leaning forward in her seat.
"Yes, but he's weak." Harry replied, pacing in front of the fire. "He's living off the unicorns. Don't you see? We had it wrong! Snape doesn't want the Stone for himself, he wants it for Voldemort!"
"Who's Voldemort?" I asked tiredly, rousing from my thoughts. They all stared at me.
"I thought you knew about You-Know-Who?" Ron exclaimed.
"The Dark Lord?" I clarified. They nodded.
"Oh. Yea, I do. I just haven't heard his name before. Sorry. Continue." I waved a hand at Harry, still not looking at him. I was aware of the funny look he gave me, but continued on with his theory, not pressing it.
"With the Elixir of Life, Voldemort will be strong again. He'll come back." Harry sat down, looking at the fire as if it held the answers.
"But, if he comes back, you don't think he'll try to..." Ron swallowed before continuing. "Do you think he'll try to kill you?"
"I think if he had the chance, he might have tried to kill me tonight." He said, looking at Ron.
I sat up. "He wouldn't have. Not tonight." I told my brother. Harry, Hermione and Ron all looked at me.
"And you know this?" Hermione asked. I nodded, and my arm began to burn again.
"How?" Harry and Ron asked simultaneously.
I shook my head, rubbing my arm absently. "I don't think he would have tried to kill you tonight because it would have been too quiet, too ambiguous. He would try and kill you with an audience, in some grand manner, not in some way that people could mistake it for an accident. If it could be mistaken for an accident, people wouldn't believe He was back, He wouldn't have the panic factor that He'd want in society, that would help him gain his power so quickly." I looked around at the other three who were staring at me, as I was scratching at my arm furiously. "I don't think I can tell you any more."
"Just like you can't tell us who you live with, or anything else about yourself!" Ron pointed out. "Why should we believe you now?"
"It's not a good idea, for anyone."
"Amy," Hermione interrupted. "Aren't you a little hot? We've got the fire, and it is spring."
Carefully, shook my head. "I don't like being cold. Spring is warm, but it's not that warm." Discreetly, I pulled my left sleeve down a little.
Hermione stood. "Harry, can I borrow your cloak?"
He looked surprised. "Sure, but why?"
"I need to go to the library."
Ron rolled his eyes as Harry went to fetch the cloak. Two minutes later, Hermione was on her way to the library at midnight under the Invisibility Cloak. We looked at each other.
"Do any of you know what that was about?" Harry asked after a silence. Ron shook his head. I also shook my head, but the sick feeling in my stomach alerted me to the blatant lie I just told my two friends. I stood and made my way over to the entrance of the girl's dormitory. "Night, you two."
Lying in bed, I dreaded what Hermione had gone to find out. She was smart, and there were too many hints out already. I didn't want to know what she'd do if found out. If she found out, I knew what would happen to me at the manor. Uneasily, I drifted into a nightmare-fuelled sleep.