He looked at Hagrid furiously but dropped his gaze.

"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here for a moment." He led them to the very edge of the forest.

Holding his lamp up high he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the forest.

"Look there," said Hagrid, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by sumthin'. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn catches us first?" said Draco, unable to keep fear out of his voice.

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid. "An' keep ter the path. Right now, we're splitting in tah two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place. It must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."

"I want Fang," said Draco quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth.

"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward," said Hagrid. "So me, Harry an' Hermione'll go one way an' Draco, Neville an' Fang'll go the other. Now, if we find the unicorn, we'll send a ray of green light up, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now- that's it- an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come to find yeh – so, be careful. Let's go."

The forest was black and silent. A short distance along the path, they reached a fork in the path. Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid took the left path while Draco, Neville, and Fang took the right. They walked silently, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. They soon found a mossy tree stump and Draco heard running water.

'There must be a stream somewhere close by,' he thought trying to keep calm.


~With Hagrid's group~

There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path they'd taken.

"You all right, Hermione?" Hagrid whispered. "Don' worry, it can't've gone far if it's this badly hurt an' then we'll be able tah... GET BEHIND THAT TREE!"

Hagrid seized Harry and Hermione and threw them off the path behind a towering oak. He pulled out an arrow and fitted it into his crossbow, raising it, ready to fire. The three of them listened. Something slithering over dead leaves nearby sounded like a cloak trailing along the ground. Hagrid squinted up the dark path, but after a few seconds, the sound faded away.

"I knew it," he murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be."

"A werewolf?" Harry suggested.

"That wasn' no werewolf an' it wasn' no unicorn, neither," said Hagrid grimly. "Right, follow me, but be careful now."

They walked more slowly now, their ears straining for the faintest sound. Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something moved.

"Who's there?" Hagrid called. "Show yerself! I'm armed!"

And into the clearing came... was it a man, or a horse? At the waist, there was a man with red hair and a beard. However, below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. Harry and Hermione's jaws dropped.

'Centaurs are real?' They both thought.

"Oh, it's you, Ronan," said Hagrid in relief. "How are yeh?" He walked forward and shook the centaur's hand.

"Good evening to you, Hagrid," said Ronan. He had a deep, sorrowful voice. "Were you planning to shoot me?"

"Can't be too careful, Ronan," replied Hagrid, patting his crossbow. "There's summat bad loose in this forest. This is Harry Potter an' Hermione Granger, by the way. Students up at the school. An' this is Ronan, you two. He's a centaur."

"We'd noticed," muttered Hermione faintly.

"Good evening," said Ronan. "Students, how are you? And do you learn much up at the school?"

"Erm–" Harry attempted to say something but couldn't.

"A bit," replied Hermione timidly.

"A bit. Well, that's something." Ronan sighed. He flung his head back and stared at the sky."Mars is bright tonight."

"Yeah," responded Hagrid, glancing up too. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt. You seen anythin'?"

Ronan didn't answer immediately. He stared unblinkingly upwards, then sighed again.

"It is always the innocent who are the first victims," he said. "So it has been for a long time, so it is now."

"Yeah," said Hagrid, "but have yeh seen anythin', Ronan? Anythin' unusual?"

"Mars is bright tonight," Ronan repeated while Hagrid watched him impatiently. "Unusually bright."

"Yeah, but I was meanin' anythin' unusual a bit nearer home," said Hagrid. "So yeh haven't noticed anythin' strange?"

Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. At last, he said, "The forest hides many secrets."

A movement in the trees behind Ronan made Hagrid raise his bow again. However, it was only a second centaur, black-haired, muscular, and wilder-looking than Ronan.

"Hullo, Bane," said Hagrid. "All right?"

"Good evening, Hagrid. I hope you are doing well?"

"Well, enough. Look, I've jus' bin askin', Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in here lately? Only there's a unicorn bin injured. Would yeh know anythin' about it?" Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan.

He looked skywards. "Mars is bright tonight," he said simply.

"We've heard," said Hagrid grumpily. "Well, if either of you does see anythin', let me know, won't yeh? We'll be off, then."

Harry and Hermione followed him out of the clearing, staring over their shoulders at Ronan and Bane until the trees blocked their view.

"Never," said Hagrid irritably, "try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon."

"Are there many of them here?" asked Hermione.

"Oh, a fair few... they tend to keep to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if I want a word. They're deep-minded centaurs... they know things... jus' don' let on much."

"D'you think that was a centaur we heard earlier?" said Harry.

"Did that sound like hooves to you? Nah, if yeh ask me, that was what's bin killin' the unicorns- never heard anythin' like it before."

They walked on through the dense, dark trees. Harry looked nervously over his shoulder. He had the nasty feeling they were being watched. He was very glad they had Hagrid and his crossbow with them. They had just passed a bend in the path when Hermione grabbed Hagrid's arm.

"Hagrid! Look! Red sparks, the others are in trouble!"

"You two wait here!" Hagrid shouted worriedly. "Stay on the path, I'll return for yeh!" He said as he left to look for Draco and Neville.

When Hagrid returned moments later, Draco, Neville, and Fang followed him. Hagrid was fuming. Draco, it seemed, sneaked up behind Neville and grabbed him for a joke. Neville panicked and sent sparks sputtering through the air.

"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 stick with Fang an' this idiot. I'm sorry."

Hagrid added in a whisper to Harry, "But he'll have a difficult time frightenin' you, an' we've gotta get this done."

So Harry went into the forest with Draco and Fang. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest. The path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick. Harry thought the blood thickened. There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain close by. Harry could see a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak.

"Look!" he murmured, holding out his arm to stop Draco.

Something bright white could be seen on the ground. They inched closer. It was indeed a unicorn, and it was dead. They'd never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves. Harry had taken one step towards it when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered... Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure crawled across the ground like some stalking beast. Harry, Draco, and Fang stood transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound on the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" Draco screamed and bolted with Fang following after him.

Once Draco found Hagrid he'd told them of the unicorn and something drinking its blood. Hagrid and Hermione yelled at him for leaving Harry behind. They looked for him. Moments later they found him on a centaur's back.

"Harry! Harry, are you all right?" Hermione hurried towards them, Hagrid puffing behind her.

"I'm fine," said Harry, hardly knowing what he was saying. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid. It's in that clearing back there." Harry pointed behind them.

"This is where I leave you," Firenze, a centaur, murmured as Hagrid hurried off to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now."

Harry slid off his back.

"Good luck, Harry Potter," said Firenze. "The planets have been read wrongly in the past, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times." He turned and stepped back into the forest, leaving Harry shivering behind him.


~Later in the Slytherin common room~

Jade and Daphne had waited for Draco to return from his detention, but Daphne had long since passed out on the couch. Draco looked like he saw a ghost. He was paler than usual and had a far-off look in his eyes and trembled to the bone. Jade pulled out a bottle of calming drought from its hiding place in the room Snape had given her earlier that day. He said Malfoy might need it after returning. Jade offered the potion to Draco, and he reluctantly accepted. She watched as he chugged it down in one gulp and sighed in relief. His trembling slowly subsided and the far-off look in his eyes faded away.

"Are you okay?" Jade asked calmly as she walked up to him. He didn't respond.

"Here take this it's from Snape, he said you might need it." She said handing the potion to him. After he drank it, she walked over to Daphne and gently woke her.

"What happened?" Jade asked Draco after Daphne woke up.

He then told them about the forest and the dead unicorn and the thing drinking its blood. However, he left out the part where he screamed and ran away.

"What?!" The two girls gasped.

"Didn't Dumbledore say the forest was off-limits to students?" Jade asked remembering that being said at the beginning of the year.

"Yeah, that is why," he replied as he walked up to the fireplace and grabbed some powder. "I'm planning to tell father about this."

He finished as he threw the powder into the fireplace and said, 'Malfoy Manor, Master Study.'

As soon as it was spoken Jade saw Lucius's face in the green flames.

"Draco, what's the matter boy?" He asked.

Draco told him everything.

"What!" Lucius roared in anger. "The forbidden forest is forbidden for a reason! I'll be at the school by morning to deal with it." Lucius almost growled.

Jade's eyes were wide with surprise but she smiled as it amused her. With that, the floo-call was over, and Draco smiled as they all headed to bed.


~Time skip~

Weeks had passed since Lucius stormed through the school and lectured Dumbledore about how he allowed Hagrid to take the students to the forbidden forest as a punishment.

Jade felt he'd only gotten a slap on the wrist since he was basically told, "Just don't do it again." by Dumbledore.

They'd been given special, brand-new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anticheating spell. They had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox. Points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was but taken away if it had whiskers. Snape reminded them how to make a forgetfulness potion. Hermione said he breathed down their necks. However, Jade thought he did this to make sure they didn't cheat since he didn't provide them with the special quills from the earlier classes. After the exams, she walked to the great hall and heard Hermione and Harry talking about a guy they called Voldemort and Harry having nightmares of him.

'Who is Voldemort?' She thought as she approached Daphne and Pansy.

She didn't ask them about it right away, but when she had... Pansy quickly covered her mouth and glanced around them.

"Don't speak You-Know-Who's name! Are you stupid?" Growled Pansy quietly.

"It's just a name, what's so wrong-"

"It's not just a name, he is-was a very terrifying man, who many Slytherins think is still alive... if you say his name he might appear before you and kill you," Daphne told her.

"Well, that's what our parents tell us anyway," Pansy said removing her hand from Jade's mouth.

The last exam was the History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When Professor Binns' ghost told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Jade cheered with the rest of the class.

"That was far easier than I thought it would be," said Hermione and Jade as they joined the crowd flocking out onto the sunny grounds.

"I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or Elfric the Eager's uprising," Hermione muttered just loud enough for Jade and Harry to hear.

Hermione always liked to look through exam papers afterward, but Ron said this made him ill. They wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan tickled a giant squid's tentacles, which basked in the warm shallows.

"No more studying," Ron sighed happily, stretching out on the grass.

Jade was bored of these three and after seeing Draco and his friends she suddenly had an idea. She walked up to them and whispered her idea.

"Fine, but this doesn't count as our end-of-year thing, okay?" Draco said and the others followed suit as they all stood by the lake. Jade smiled excitedly.

Ways to Be Wicked - from Descendants 2

"We got all the ways to be W-i-c-k-e-d We got all the ways to be W-i-c-k-e-d C'mon hey hey hey hey hey Hey hey hey hey (haha) Hey hey hey hey hey"

They all chanted as Jade cast a charm over her MP3 so everyone could hear the instrumental sounds.

"Crashin' the party, guess they lost my invention Friendly reminder got my own kind of persuasion..."

Jade sang playing with a harmless green flame in her left hand with a smirk on her face.

"Looks like this place could use a bit of misbehavior. Happily Ever After with a little flavor..."

Draco sang as he walked up to Ron Weasley and threw his books in the air.

"Bad to the bone, with even worse intentions. We're gonna steal the show and leave 'em all defenseless..."

Sung Pansy as she sneered at the Weasley boy. As Daphne stood next to Jade, she sang.

"A fairy tale life can be Oh-so overrated. So raise your voices and let's activate it..."

"Long live havin' some fun We take what we want..."

They all chanted as Draco and Pansy walked back to the lake.

"There are so many ways to be wicked With us evil lives on the right side of wrong There are so many ways to be wicked..."

Each of them sang with a sinister smirk on their faces.

"Apple, apple dip, dip..." Jade and Daphne sang in whispers.

"Wanna try it? Tick, tick..."

Draco and Pansy sang as they offered green apples to their fellow Slytherins.

"Take a bite, c'mon, be bold. Change the way the story's told..."

Jade and Daphne sang in an almost angry tone as they offered theirs to Harry and Hermione who looked confused.

"This time the dark is finally getting your attention,"

Jade said flicking her hair back off her shoulder as she walked back.

"We're wicked by the book, and class is back in session..."

Sang Daphne pretending to open a book with her hands.

"You like it, steal it. Gotta beat 'em to the treasure..."

Pansy sang as she took something shiny from Neville, who looked like he would cry.

"A right of passage- bad just doesn't get much better..."

Draco sang with a smirk and his hands folded over his chest.

"Long live havin' some fun We take what we want There are so many ways to be wicked With us evil lives on the right side of wrong There are so many ways to be wicked..."

They chanted again.

"Mother always knows best..." Jade sang with longing in her eyes.

"Show her... pass her every test..." Daphne sang not looking too happy.

"Hear her... voice in my head..." Pansy sang clutching her head and pretending to be in pain.

"Evil is the only-" Draco sang.

"Real way to live..." The others joined in again.

"We got all the ways to be Hey hey hey hey W-i-c-k-e-d We got all the ways to be Hey hey hey hey W-i-c-k-e-d (Ye-ah)" They chanted.

"Long live havin' some fun (havin' some fun) We take what we want There are so many ways to be wicked With us evil lives on (evil lives on) The right side of wrong..."

They all sang as Jade took the shiny thing from Pansy and threw it back to the crybaby.

"There are so many ways to be wicked... Cruel and unusual... We're taking control... There are so many ways to be wicked..."

Jade sneered at Nevil as they all sang.

"With us..." Jade sang without the others.

"Evil lives on..." Pansy joined in.

"The right side..." Daphne sang with a smile.

"of wrong..." Draco Joined with a sinister look in his eyes.

"There are so many ways to be wicked..." they all sang.

"So many ways to be wicked..."

Jade sang alone ending the song with a sinister smile on her lips. After they were done singing some raven claws and Hufflepuffs walked up to ask about their summer and what they planned to do till the exams are over.