Chapter 13

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Even if I loved learning, I hated exams. The exams for the First Years would begin in the upcoming weeks, so I and my friends would be stuck in the library or in our dorms. Some of the older years made practise exams for us to try and answer.

I volunteered to get an array of books from the library for the study group the older Slytherins forced us to make. My Invisibility Cloak sat in my endless pouch. I wanted to get some light reading from the Restricted Area. On my way back, I heard whimpers from a classroom ahead of me.

Even the moment before I saw anyone, a shooting pain went from my hairline down to my eyebrow, shattering through my head like a blaze. I pressed a hand into the area and it dulled the pain for just a moment.

Then he appeared, resulting in agony.

Quirrell's voice echoed quietly. "No. No. Nononono. Not again, please!" He sobbed pitifully as he came rushing out. Pale and trembling with fear and horror, he straightened his turban.

I caught the tiniest of glimpses of his head, pale, bald and slightly bumpy-Like a face.

But I knew that was impossible, wasn't it? Or at least I hoped it was. I didn't want to know exactly what was on his head. It was deformed, disgusting and overall unimagivatively ew to think about.

He tumbled away, Quirrell hadn't even noticed me. Waiting until Quirrell's footsteps disappeared, I peered into the classroom. Empty but with a door creaked open at the other end.

I furrowed my eyes in confusion but thought nothing of it, simply storing that strange occurance away in my mind. I huddled back to the classroom in the dungeons, piling the books from the library out of my endless pouch and onto the table.

"Rebekah, are you ok?" Daphne dipped her quill into the black ink.

"You look a little pale," Draco scrunched his face up. "What happened?"

I shook my head slowly, aching from the pain. "Nothing. Do I look that ill? I might go to the Infirmary then."

"Yeah, you should," Gemma Farley was the Slytherin that was supervising the group that day, her and Crumb. "Do you want to take her, or should I?"

"I've got it, Farley," He said, pocketing his wand into his sleeved shirt. "I'll make sure she gets there and then I'll come back."

He quickly took me out of the room after sending Farley a glance, to which she nodded.

)(-)(

Madam Pomfrey almost blew a fuse when she saw the state of my scar tissue.

Dark, angry and red.

Every time she tried to heal it with her wand, I screamed in agony. A silencing spell had to be placed around my bed in the infirmary. I had to outright refuse any magical treatment from Madam Pomfrey, it was almost too much pain to bear.

So I laid in the infirmary bed, clutching a pillow.

"I have to inform Dumbledore about this," Madam Pomfrey muttered, pacing then summoned a glowing orb of sky blue light. "Right, Miss Potter. Now you stay here for a little bit. We'll have this sorted in no time."

I nodded mutely, unshed tears glistened in my numb eyes. The pain was getting better but each time I thought of the face, it flared to life again.

Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape charged in within minutes. Madam Pomfrey and the trio of Professors huddled near my bed, but far enough away that I couldn't hear what was said.

Madam Pomfrey began to redden in the face, her calm expressions changed to outright rage. She wagged a finger at Dumbledore, pointed to me and then looked to Snape and McGonagall. McGonagall had a stone cold expression, rigid and firm.

Snape was, as always, neutral but even I could see the rage in his eyes, only softening when they looked at me. His eyes darkened to black tunnels when he turned from me to Dumbledore, as if disdain and hatred consumed him.

It took several minutes for their heated conversation to cool. Snape flicked his robes with a sharp turn, he held a container the size of his palm, and came over to my bedside.

"Good Afternoon, Miss Potter," He said, sitting down on the summoned stool.

"Afternoon, Sir," I said back. "Is that for my scar?"

"Yes, it is quite similar to the last one, but this one has extra ingredients that'll dull pain receptors that constantly go off," He said, twisting the lid off and showed me the dull seaweed green substance. "You will have to apply this daily, and whenever the scar begins to cause severe pain."

"Thank you, Professor."

His eyes were black, emotionless but covered with a calm face. His lips twirled up in the smallest smile I had ever seen. It was to reassure me that my pain would disappear, but I knew it would never leave me as long as I had the scar. It would be the constant reminder that I was the Girl-Who-Lived, that my parents were killed, that I was the reason that my parents were dead.

But it never occurred to me that there might have been Magical means to bring my parents back.

Was there something that could bring a person from the dead?

Something that could resurrect my parents?

)(-)(

The next morning, right before breakfast even started, the owls brought the daily mail. A note was dropped in front of me, and a similar one in front of Nott.

Your first detention will take place at ten o'clock tonight.

Meet Mr Hagrid at his hut.

Professor A Dumbledore

I groaned.

"Detention with Hagrid? What is Dumbledore thinking?" Draco said loudly to the group, most of them nodded and agreed. I sat back and ignored his comment. "Well, what do you say, Rebekah? What do you think he's going to make you do?"

I shrugged, picking at my toast with disdain. "I actually don't mind. I've been to the hut before, when I needed to get a special cream for Emperor. Hagrid was nice, like a huge teddy bear a little bit. I helped feed the Thestrals one time."

"Thestrals? Aren't they a bad omen though?"

I shook my head. "Only those who had seen Death, can see Thestrals."

There was silence for a moment, then Blaise decided to change the conversation.

)(-)(

At precisely ten o'clock, I was at Hagrid's hut. It took Nott several minutes for him to finally arrive.

"Alright, yeh're all here," Hagrid said, holding the satchels in his hands. "Yeh shouldn't be doin' this but Dumbled're said yeh had to. We'll be feedin' the Thestrals t'night."

"Can yeh both see the Thestral next ta the treeline?"

Both of us nodded and were given satchels. I pulled the strap over my torso, so it crossed my chest. The Thestrals had the habit of trying to take the whole bag if it wasn't secured properly.

"Since when did the school had Thestrals?" Nott snarked. "I didn't think they'd own Dark Creatures."

"Thestrals aren't Dark," I told him as we waded through the Forbidden Forest, getting into a clearing of shallow grass near the treeline. "They're called Dark because only those who observed death could see them."

There was a question of who he saw die hung in the air but I didn't dare ask.

The trees were thick and the sky was so full of clouds, no natural light entered the forest. The only light source was the roaring fire Hagrid started in the middle of the clearing, casting long shadows.

"Come on, dinner time!" Hagrid yelled, taking a large swing with a bell, ringing it twice. "They'll be coming in a minute, just yeh wait."

A small bundle of moving Thestral thrusted itself into my legs again, making me land abruptly with the foal trying to climb up my body. I laughed before throwing a piece of flesh to the side, watching the young Thestral pick it up and devour it.

Nott stood still, letting the Thestrals come to him. He was cautious as one nipped at his skin but not painful enough for him to retract it.

The foal's mother and father soon joined us. I fed them by hand as they circled me and then laid down on the ground. I sat down too, then the back of my robes was pulled by the mother and forced me closer to them. I sat between them, the baby sitting in my lap as I fed them.

Nott didn't dare join, feeding the other Thestrals as more came.

"Was it your parents?" he suddenly asked and I stilled. "I mean, you were only a baby. It couldn't of been them, could it?"

"It was them," I sighed, knowing this would have come up eventually. "I have vague memories of my parents but their death is etched into my memory forever. What about you?"

"My aunt," his tone was sad and low, innocent. "I was seven and she had a heart attack. It's in my dad's line. A lot of them have bad hearts. I do too."

I threw a piece to the foal again and she chewed it and stopped. It fell from her boney jaw, her head jutting to the side then the other and back again, and again, and again. I could feel the fear that rolled off of the young Thestral.

Out of the shadows of the Forbidden Forest, came a hooded figure crawling across the ground like an undead beast. It dragged with it something, a dying body of a Unicorn. I saw the way its long tongue drank the holy silver blood of the Unicorn.

Hagrid was out of sight and I didn't know where he went.

I just stood and shoved Nott to run with me. The foal ran to its parents as the figure looked up and scampered to its feet, making a direct turn to Nott and me. It sprinted towards us but we were further, trying to get out of the forest but it seemed like we were further in than we thought we were.

The brush grounds prevented our escape to be as quick as we wanted.

My head was on fire. Spurt after painful spurt of liquid fire felt like it was coursing to the scar. I clutched it as I whimpered, tears dripped down my face in thin lines. Every tear pooled in my collar, drenching it.

I stumbled when another spurt came and it flared to life. I could barely hold myself up and I tumbled to my feet.

"Get up," Nott grabbed my arm, "Get up! It's coming!"

He hitched one of my arms over his, trying to help me up but I was dead weight with how much pain I was in. I could barely think but I knew I needed to get away from the creature. It was advancing quickly, claws tearing through the brush of the ground as it thrust its way through.

Another creature burst out of the shadows, the female Thestral flew into the figure's path, effectively blocking it from us. Her mate came quickly when she huffed loudly enough, he shielded her as she made her way to us. Kneeling, she forced Nott to help me get on her back as another creature, a running Centaur, grabbed him.

I sobbed into the neck of the dam. I had never felt this much pain. It wreaked havoc as it coursed through my head, making me dizzy. Eventually the pain reached everywhere from my toes to my hair that was swirled into a bun with my wand as an anchor.

It became too much, much too quickly. My body had used all of my adrenaline to run. Even I knew I couldn't stay awake with this much pain. I whispered a quick thank you to both creatures, then locked my hands around the dam's neck.

I willingly closed my eyes, allowing the shadows around to consume me.

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