Harry Potter Year One: Strangers in Forbidden Forest

by StarGoldFang

Who is afraid shouldn't go into the forest. Even more if it is named Forbidden and is occupied by various deadly beasts. And apparently something that is supposed to not exist anymore.

4. Research and recovery

Research and recovery

He told no one about the strange duo from the forest. Well, to no one that is human. He told Burmese, after he showed up.
Harry still did not know where the snake keep disappearing, and snake himself refused to tell.
When Harry told him what happened, Burmese kept hissing angrily for at least half an hour and threatening everyone involved.

"Let me bite them! Let me bite them! No, I go to bite them anyway! I start with the big one! I rip him to shreds! I bite him a hundred times! Then I eat the pale coward!"

Harry's eyes widened at the last threat. Burmese was a huge snake. He could have wrapped its body twice around Harry.

"Be still Burmese. You can't attack, neither can you eat someone."

"Why not!? The big one lead you to danger and let you with pale coward! Both deserve punishment. No one hurt my human!"

Harry sat down on the bed and pulled Burmese's head into his lap with a smile, patting the smooth scales.

"I am touched that someone would get so angry on my behalf. No-one's ever done that before. But we need to be careful, you need to be careful. If you hurt someone, adults will search for you. They take you away from me and kill you."

Burmese let out an unpleasant hiss.

"No one take me away from my human!"

"They can and they will. Don't catch their attention if you don't need to. I'm still surprised that they didn't notice you yet."

Burmese slowly calmed down, letting out just the occasional hiss.

After that, Burmese tried to stay with Harry more often. Which was difficult if they didn't want to bring attention to Burmese's presence, not just because of the colder weather. Surprisingly, other three boys in his dormitory were quite inattentive.

The weekend passed quickly, and the Friday night still makes Harry shake, he still had to think of a strange duo that saved him from Voldemort.

In Monday classes, he could not concentrate at all. Which was worse than usual, due to the Potions and Snape. Although a bit ironic, as they were preparing the Forgetfulness Potion and Harry couldn't concentrate enough, so he constantly forgot the ingredients, even though he always read the instructions carefully before. Snape was livid.
During breaks and after school, he went to the library looking for books about magical creatures.

He found unicorns, gryphons, phoenixes, flying horses, and many more. However, none resembled the creature that he saw.

So he tried to find magical reptiles. In those books, he found various snakes, lizards and various other semi-creatures. The closest was a small lizard, a firedrake. However, the size did not fit.

In the books about snakes, though, he found some tips on how to provide better care for Burmese.

Desperately, Harry tried to find a book about dragons. Because in his mind, there was little chance that the creature he saw was anything else. But he found only small mention of them.

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓮𝔁𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓸𝓷𝓼 𝓲𝓼 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓵𝔂 𝓭𝓲𝓼p𝓾𝓽𝓪𝓫𝓵𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓼𝓮 𝓭𝓪𝔂𝓼. 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓬𝓸𝓻𝓭𝓼 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓪𝓼𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓶 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓲𝓻 𝓮𝔁𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮, 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓶𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓬𝓸𝓻𝓭𝓼 𝓪𝓵𝓼𝓸 𝓲𝓷𝓭𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓲𝓻 𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮. 𝓦𝓲𝔃𝓪𝓻𝓭𝓼 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓪𝓫𝓵𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓪𝓰𝓻𝓮𝓮 𝓸𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓸𝓷𝓼. 𝓢𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓲𝓶 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝔂 𝓫𝓮𝓬𝓪𝓶𝓮 𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓮𝔁𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓬𝓽, 𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓲𝓶 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝔂 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓮𝔁𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓭, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓪𝓻𝓰𝓾𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓸𝓷𝓼 𝓪𝓼 𝓼𝓾𝓬𝓱 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝔁𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓪𝓽 𝓪𝓵𝓵. 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓼𝓮 𝓲𝓷𝓭𝓲𝓿𝓲𝓭𝓾𝓪𝓵𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓸-𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓭 "𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓸𝓷𝓼" 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓿𝓪𝓻𝓲𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓶𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓵 𝓬𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮𝓼. 𝓜𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓵𝔂 𝓱𝔂𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓼, 𝓻𝓾𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓹𝓸𝓸𝓻𝓼, 𝓸𝓬𝓬𝓪𝓶𝓲𝓮𝓼, 𝓶𝓸𝓴𝓮𝓼, 𝓸𝓻 𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓴𝓮𝓼 𝓾𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓪𝓷 𝓔𝓷𝓰𝓸𝓻𝓰𝓮𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓶 𝓸𝓻 𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓻𝓮𝓹𝓽𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓼 𝓾𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓲𝓷𝓯𝓵𝓾𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓶𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓬 𝓸𝓯 𝔀𝓲𝔃𝓪𝓻𝓭𝓼 𝓼𝓾𝓬𝓱 𝓪𝓼 𝓯𝓪𝓶𝓲𝓵𝓲𝓪𝓻𝓼 𝓸𝓻 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓹𝓪𝓷𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼.

That makes Harry stop. When he learned about the magical world, the possibility of the existence of these fire-breathing giant reptiles fascinated him. Now he learned they were gone, if they ever were. It was really sad idea.

Harry couldn't sleep. The detention in the forest was still disturbing his sleep. He felt something fly over his head, felt a warm breath on his scalp. He woke up in the middle of the night, disturbing Burmese sleep as well, and stared out the window at the forest despite Burmese's repeated coaxing to return to sleep.
Even on Wednesday astronomy class, he turned his telescope on the forest a few times.

Burmese wasn't the only one concerned about his behaviour. One night, the scared snake waked Ron. After the astronomy, Hermione noticed too. They sent him to the hospital wing on Thursday. He avoided it a few times, so in the end, they had to bring him there in person.

Madam Pomfrey gave him a Calming Draught, sent him to sleep and ordered him to return the next day.

When his friends brought him there after Friday's last class, she asked him about the possible reason for his sleep problems.
Hesitantly, he told her about the detention sentence last week and what had happened during it. How they followed the bloody tracks, how they found the unicorn, about the hooded figure, how Malfoy ran away and left him there alone. As the figure crept up to him, blood dripped from its mouth as it approached and as the centaur drove it away.

Again, he didn't mention the mysterious duo.

None of the adults never ever, do something when he had problems. That why he didn't expect that something will happen.

To his surprise, Madam Pomfrey was incredibly angry. Students heard the ensuing argument with Professor McGonagall across a few corridors.

Small amount of hope started rising in him. It looked like she was the first adult who cared. But Madam Pomfrey was a matron, it was her duty to take care of the students after all. You can say he's waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Even at school with Dudley, some teachers cared for a while before they started to believe the words of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

Despite that, he found himself coming back repeatedly, and they talked. She really seems seriously interested. After a few days, he even slept better.

During one session, she pointed to how skinny, almost malnourished Harry was. He didn't believe that she noticed it just now. In that desperate little hope that he had, he told her how the Dursleys treated him.

To say it horrified her would be an understatement.

The entire school heard the argument between her, Dumbledore and McGonagall. You could hear only excerpts, depending on where you were.

Was McGonagall chasing Dumbledore through school?

"I told you! I said they were the worst kind of muggles! Did you listen to me?"
"Minerva..."
"Don't' Minerva' me! Don't you dare...!"
"Malnutrition, broken bones...!"
"I'm sure it's not ..."
"It's not what? So bad? What do you think about me?!"
"They are his family ... misun -..."
"No misunderstanding! Clearly an abuse! You should never have left him there! I told you! I said ...! "
"Severe under ... trauma ... distrust ... maybe ..."
"Is ... protection ... safety ... back ..."
"I do not recommend, no, I forbid ... obscu..."
"He won't go ... OBSCURUS ? ! ALBUS DUMBLEDORE! RETURN HERE! IMMEDIATELY! ..don't want me! HERE ... You hear! Don't you dar- "

That was all Harry could hear from where he was. Students later whispered about how was Dumbledore seen being persecuted by an angry, furious McGonagall.

So she was really chasing him, Harry thought. What is obscurus?

Harry and many other students swore that moment that they would never upset McGonagall again, even Fred and George. They mumbled something that sounded suspiciously as worse than mother and don't tempt fate.

A few days after the 'incident', he still took soothing and nourishing elixirs and talked to Madam Pomfrey about what had happened in the woods.

Within a week, he felt good and forgot about the strange creature.

It wasn't until one day, the day before the Christmas holidays, after Ron and his brothers left, that he saw a flying shape over the forest, out of the bedroom window.