Chapter 9
Time continued and Harry had started to pay more attention to Quirrell and Snape, now that he knew about the philosopher's stone he was sure one of them was trying to steal it. In the coming weeks Harry saw that Snape hadn't changed that much when it came to the other students, he still insulted and berated the Gryffindors but when it came to Harry the professor hardly acknowledged him. There were a few times Harry noticed Snape staring at him before he turned away but he couldn't tell what Snape was thinking, Harry did notice that when Snape faced him he wouldn't make eye contact anymore.
In defense Harry noticed his scar stopped hurting, normally he'd keep his occlumency shields up the whole class since he would feel something try to enter his mind but after the break the pain stopped. Harry decided to risk it and attended a class without his shields but to his surprise nothing happened, even when Harry stared directly into Quirrell's eyes during class he didn't feel anything try to invade his mind or cause him pain. Harry wasn't sure if he should feel relieved that the pain finally stopped or if he should worry that Quirrell might be planning something and decided to try and get Harry to let his guard down.
When it came to their dueling lessons Flitwick had been teaching the students basic spells to distract their opponent, one strategy he taught them to end the fight quickly involved creating a jet of red sparks and whispering the disarming charm right after so it blends in with the sparks. Flitwick informed the students for their first year he intends to teach them about quick defeats, distractions, and dodging but in their later years that's when they will learn some of the more powerful spells to defeat an opponent in dueling. He had the students face each other and cast stinging jinxes at each other and told them the lesson was to watch how their opponent moves their body and wand and to predict where they intend to fire so they can dodge the spell.
When it came to their regular time in the dueling room Harry ended up celebrating the first week after the break. During the break, when he wasn't in the library, Harry practiced all of his spells over and over but the spell he mostly focused on was frictionless, Harry could feel how his magic would react when he tried to cast the spell and he felt it might be time to try. Since Harry hadn't told any of his friends about his goal to master wandless magic he decided to head to the dueling room during lunch, while everyone else was eating in the great hall Harry was in the dueling room practicing one more time with his wand. He no longer needed the wand movement and he kept his mouth shut tight as he cast the spell again and felt how his magic reacted.
Harry placed his wand on a table and stepped to the middle of the dueling room, he remembered from the journal how his mum said she'd practice the wand movement and incantation with just her hand so Harry followed the wand movement with his right hand and pointed his hand forward and said "Frictionless!" Harry felt his magic react similar to when he tried with the wand although he felt it was a bit weaker. He looked towards the ground and tried to see if there was any difference or not but he wasn't able to tell. Harry walked forward until he ended up reaching the spot before he let out a yell and slipped, Harry landed flat on his back staring up at the ceiling before a smile appeared on his face then he started laughing.
Harry let out a cheer as he successfully managed to cast wandlessly, he remembered the feeling of his magic leaving through his hand and saw how different it felt from when he used his wand. Harry knew if he kept practicing then he'd be able to cast a few wandless spells silently, he could imagine all the ways he'd be able to use this skill and he even got a few prank ideas. Harry had thought of telling his friends about this but he remembered how his mum warned him about telling anyone about the journal, even though he trusted his friends he worried someone might try to read their minds and they'd learn everything. Harry decided he'd find a way to suggest to his friends they should learn occlumency before he can tell them anything.
This was how things continued, Harry was able to practice his casting in his free time but he also had to attend the quidditch practices since they were playing against Hufflepuff at the end of February. Oliver told Harry to use the practice snitch he gave him for Christmas whenever they weren't practicing, because of this Harry started to carry the snitch in its box and he'd release it to practice his reflexes. Harry had often let the practice snitch fly around for a bit before trying to catch it and because of this he ended up thinking of an idea he could use for dueling practice.
Harry ended up going to Professor Flitwick and telling him of his idea, Flitwick liked the idea and agreed to it, during their next dueling lesson Flitwick brought with him a few bludgers he charmed himself. Flitwick informed the students that they will start accuracy training, the bludgers are meant to avoid people and their job is to shoot them all down with stinging jinxes, he informed the students that over time he would shrink the size of the targets until hopefully one day their targets were a similar size to snitches. When Flitwick released the four bludgers one student would stand in the center and try and hit them while the others stood with Flitwick behind a shield. Once again Hermione and Daphne turn this into a competition where they'd try and beat each other's time, by the end of the lesson Daphne won their contest and the two girls smirked at each other knowing they'd compete again in their next lesson.
One day Neville got to see how much the lessons were helping him, he had gone with Hannah to one of the greenhouses where they volunteered to help Professor Sprout with the plants. Neville was eager and excited to work closely with many of the plants since back home the greenhouses were always a place that calmed him. It soon became time for dinner and the two students cleaned up before leaving, the professor offered to escort them to the great hall but the two were in a rush to meet up with their friends. The two were heading to dinner when they suddenly heard "Locomotor mortis!"
Both students dodged to the side as the red spell shot past them, they turned around and saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle standing there with their wands out. Malfoy seemed upset and said "Stand still squib, I need to practice, locomotor mortis!" The spell shot towards Neville only for him to sidestep the spell again, Neville was tempted to pull out his wand but he realized something and glanced over at Hannah. The two made eye contact and Neville shook his head, Hannah understood he told her not to fight back so she pulled her hand away from her wand in her pocket. Malfoy grew more upset and this time Crabbe and Goyle joined him in firing the same spell, Neville and Hannah watched closely where Malfoy pointed his wand and the two quickly moved to the side to avoid the spell. Neville noticed what he was waiting for, when Malfoy fired the spell again Neville let himself get hit and his legs locked together.
Malfoy had a satisfied smirk on his face and said "I've been wanting to test out that spell, good thing there's a worthless squib to practice on."
"Mr. Malfoy!"
The three boys turned around and saw an angry Professor Sprout marching towards them. Neville saw the color drain from Malfoy's face and he had to try hard not to laugh, Hannah needed to cover her mouth to try not to laugh. Sprout stood in front of them and said "You three, follow me, now!"
Malfoy spoke "We were trying to defend ourselves!"
"I saw they didn't have their wands out and I heard what you said about practicing on a student, that will be twenty points from each of you, an extra ten points for lying to a teacher and you will all have detention, follow me, now!"
The professor took their wands and canceled the spell on Neville before making the three boys follow her, while they walked away Neville and Hannah smiled at them as the three boys glared back at them. The two continued to walk to dinner and when they knew they couldn't be heard the two started laughing. Hannah spoke "While that was hilarious why didn't you fight back?"
Neville answered "If I did then Malfoy would have used that to get out of trouble, I knew the professor would show up soon so I thought it would be better if he got caught instead."
"True, the look on his face when she showed up was worth it. I can't believe he still calls you a squib even though you got your proper wand and have improved."
Neville shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't need to prove myself to someone like Malfoy, if he tries to attack me again then I'll show him why I'm not a squib."
The two continued on to the great hall where they separated to sit with their friends, Neville told Harry and the others what happened and soon they all saw three upset Slytherins show up and take their seats. Ron and Harry started laughing when they heard Neville's story and they congratulated him for getting Malfoy in trouble. A few days passed and Harry volunteered to join Neville in the greenhouses, when the two were done they started to head back to the common room but on their way there Malfoy attacked them.
The three boys focused their spells on Neville, because of the multiple spells Neville got hit and fell over. Harry glared at Malfoy and cast "Frictionless, baubillious!"
The jet of white sparks surprised the three boys and when they stepped back they all slipped and fell in a pile. Harry stopped the spell and was about to help Neville up only to hear "Potter!"
Harry turned around and saw Professor Snape showed up, Snape canceled the spell and said "Attacking students in the middle of the hall, that will be thirty points from Gryffindor and detention with Filch."
Harry was shocked and he could see the smug looks on the three boy's faces, Harry spoke "They attacked us first and hit Neville, I was just-"
Snape cut him off "Silence, another ten points for lying to a professor, you will report to Filch tonight."
Snape led the three boys away and Harry glared at them, he saw Snape was back to his old self and he didn't even cancel the spell on Neville. Harry canceled the leg locker curse and helped Neville up, when Neville tried to apologize Harry told him it wasn't his fault. Harry wanted to get back at Malfoy since it was obvious Malfoy planned it with Snape to get them in trouble, Harry often heard Malfoy make insults to other students to try and get them in trouble and when the student said something back it was usually followed by Malfoy threatening to tell his father, suddenly an idea came to his mind.
The next morning Harry took out his invisibility cloak and walked down to breakfast, he soon stopped outside the entrance and covered himself before waiting. A few minutes passed and Harry saw Malfoy and his group showed up so Harry followed after Malfoy and pulled out his wand, once Harry was done he left the hall and took off his cloak before entering again, now he just needed to wait for the right time. When history was over Harry saw Malfoy and his group were the first to leave so Harry pointed his wand and whispered "Seen."
Malfoy was walking with an air of arrogance when suddenly he heard many of the students start laughing. Turning around he saw many were pointing in his direction and laughing, at first he thought it was something behind him but he saw nothing was there. He saw even Theo was laughing before Pansy told him "Draco, your back."
Pansy pulled out a mirror and showed him what was on his back, Malfoy saw the words 'Daddy's precious baby boy' was written on his back. Malfoy's face turned red in embarrassment before he shouted "Who did this!?" Many kept laughing, Malfoy grew angrier and yelled "Wait till my father hears about this!" This only made the students laugh more as he stormed off, Harry hadn't shown anyone else the spell except for Ron so no one knew it was him. Harry had tested the spell on his cloak and he saw the spell could write through it, after that he could easily understand why his dad liked using this spell.
Time continued and soon the day of their game against Hufflepuff came and Harry was shocked to learn Snape was going to referee the match, the rest of his friends seemed worried thinking Snape was going to try something so they decided to keep an eye on him but they would also watch Quirrell in case he tried something. Thankfully the match hadn't lasted long, ten minutes after the match started Harry managed to catch the snitch and end the game. Harry knew quidditch matches could go on for hours or even days so he was surprised he ended it so quickly.
Most of Gryffindor had returned to the tower to celebrate their victory but Harry decided to stay out and fly around. Hedwig ended up joining him and the two started flying around together, the two even made a game out of it where Hedwig would fly ahead and Harry had to follow her, she'd make many turns to make it harder for Harry to catch her but after a while she'd stop to rest on his broom. Hedwig let Harry fly around while she rested and the two enjoyed the peace they felt in the air, however while Harry was slowly flying around he noticed something near the edge of the forest, he spotted Snape and Quirrell.
Harry felt tempted to follow them but he realized he might get caught until he thought of an idea, through their bond Harry asked "Hedwig, can you fly near Snape and Quirrell and listen in on their conversation?"
Hedwig could tell Harry was being serious so she agreed and flew towards the forest to listen. Harry listened through the bond and Hedwig informed Harry how Snape was asking Quirrell if he knew how to get past Hagrid's monster and how he wouldn't want him as an enemy. Harry called Hedwig back and the two left for the castle as he thought over what just happened, Snape was threatening Quirrell and wanted to find out how to get past Fluffy, he now wondered if Snape was the one trying to steal the stone.
Harry informed his friends about what happened and now they were wondering if Snape was the one trying to steal the stone but Harry felt something was telling him to pay more attention to Quirrell. In the weeks that followed Harry made sure every time he had potions and defense he'd keep up his occlumency shields in case they tried to look into his mind, in his classes he no longer felt anything since Quirrell seemed to stop and Snape still refused to make eye contact with Harry for some reason. With the start April Hermione made a schedule for when to study so they could be prepared for their final exams, because of this they often spent time studying in the dueling room or in the library.
One day Harry noticed Hagrid was in the library to get some books and Harry noticed one of them was about dragons, this made Harry curious so he convinced Hermione, Neville, and Ron to join him when he went to visit Hagrid. When the four friends entered Hagrid's hut they felt like they walked into an oven and soon they all saw the reason why, in Hagrid's fireplace was a huge egg and Harry realized it was a dragon egg. They all immediately saw what could go wrong with Hagrid owning a dragon but Hagrid brushed their worries aside and seemed excited to own his own dragon, the four barely paid attention to Hagrid explaining how he won the egg from someone at the Hog's Head since they couldn't tear their eyes away from the egg. When the four friends left they agreed to not tell anyone about the egg since they didn't want Hagrid to get in trouble but they needed to think of a way to get rid of the dragon before Hagrid was caught.
A month passed since they found out Hagrid had a dragon egg and Hagrid informed them the egg would be hatching soon, even though they all felt terrified of dragons they still decided to visit Hagrid's hut late at night to see the egg hatch. All of them watched the egg hatch and out emerged a Norwegian Ridgeback which Hagrid named Norbert. Despite Norbert burning some of Hagrid's beard he was still happy to have his own dragon however everything turned bad when they noticed Draco Malfoy watching them through the window before quickly leaving. They knew he saw the dragon so they needed to get rid of it soon before Malfoy could tell anyone and get Hagrid in trouble. They soon came up with a plan to write to Ron's brother Charlie and when he wrote back they now had a plan to take Norbert to the top of the astronomy tower to hand Norbert over.
Things only got worse when Malfoy ended up finding the letter and now knew when they needed to take Norbert, it was already too late to change the plan and now Harry and Hermione had to be the ones to deliver Norbert. When Ron and Neville went to inform Hagrid about the plan Ron had his hand bit by Norbert, he had to stay in the hospital wing to heal his hand. Neville had offered to come along and help but Harry told him they'd have an easier time hiding under the cloak if it was just the two of them carrying Norbert. Harry had asked Hedwig to fly around the astronomy tower and if she spotted anyone to inform him through the bond.
The night came and Harry and Hermione left the tower under the cloak, they easily avoided Filch and any teacher that was still out, soon they arrived at Hagrid's hut where a tearful Hagrid was saying goodbye to Norbert as he put him in a crate. At first the two kids started to carry the crate by hand but then Harry got the idea to levitate the crate a few inches off the ground so they could still hide. This made the trip to the tower much easier but when they were near Harry was informed by Hedwig that Malfoy and McGonagall were there. When they arrived Harry informed Hermione to move slowly and soon they saw McGonagall taking Malfoy away to be punished for making up a story about dragons and being out late.
The two finally made it to the top of the tower, after some time Charlie's friends came and took Norbert, once they were gone Harry suddenly had Hermione throw her arms around him and hug him while saying "We did it! We did it! Hagrid won't get in trouble and the best part is Malfoy got in trouble!"
Harry smiled at seeing how happy Hermione was and hugged her back, Hedwig landed nearby to watch the two and she wondered to herself if her Harry might have found his mate already. The two separated and looked up in the direction the dragon handlers left, suddenly Hermione realized she was alone on top of the astronomy tower with Harry late at night. Hermione felt nervous and glanced over at Harry, she already admitted to herself she had a crush on her best friend and now she saw they were in a romantic place alone. Gulping, Hermione nervously reached over and took hold of Harry's hand, the touch made Harry look at her, she noticed Harry looked confused about why she suddenly grabbed his hand so Hermione decided to speak "Harry, I- I was wondering-"
"What is going on here!?"
The two jumped and turned to see who the third voice was, they felt all the color drain from their faces when they saw Professor McGonagall standing there. Hedwig realized she wasn't paying attention and wasn't able to warn Harry about McGonagall coming their way, she apologized to Harry for letting him down but Harry forgave her and told her to head back to the owlery. The two students were taken away to McGonagall's office where they found Malfoy was there, at first Malfoy smirked thinking they were caught and he was going to be let go but McGonagall ended up giving all three of them detention. Malfoy complained only for McGonagall to say it was for being out past curfew, she then turned to Harry and Hermione and told them she couldn't believe they set up this entire prank about a dragon to trick Malfoy, while Malfoy tried to say they had a real dragon Harry and Hermione admitted to it being a prank so they'd get in trouble instead of Hagrid. Malfoy lost Slytherin fifty points but for Harry and Hermione they lost seventy-five points each and were no longer allowed to use the dueling room.
Harry and Hermione looked horrified and asked about their dueling lessons with Flitwick to which the professor said she'd talk to Flitwick about it. Once she sent them away she took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose as she thought "I can't believe him, I really thought Harry wouldn't try and pull such a prank on another student but I guess he's too much like his father, hopefully this punishment will keep him from trying something like this again."
Harry and Hermione returned to the tower feeling devastated, the dueling room meant a lot to them since they spent almost every day in there and now they were banned from going back. They both realized they'd have to tell their friends why they can't use the dueling room anymore, soon the two left for their rooms to prepare for what was to come. The next day everything went from bad to worse, they not only saw the same devastated look on their friends' faces when they told them about the dueling room but now many in Gryffindor turned against Harry and Hermione for losing them so many points in one night. Cormac decided to use this chance to turn more people against Harry and Hermione, he started to loudly tell people how they lost the house cup and it was all their fault.
Thankfully not everyone turned against them, the quidditch team still stood up for Harry and now Hermione, the twins made sure to prank anyone that tried to do something against them, Oliver even got in a shouting match with Cormac when he tried to convince him to kick Harry off the team and let him be their new seeker, Oliver told Cormac he'd rather play without a seeker than let him on the team. The rest of their year mates hadn't turned against them but whenever they were anywhere public Harry and Hermione could tell many of the older Gryffindors were glaring at them and blaming them for losing the cup.
For the rest of the week Harry and Hermione had to tell their friends from the other houses that they couldn't use the dueling room during their free time anymore, thankfully McGonagall still let the rest of their friends use the dueling room and only the two were banned but to their surprise their friends refused to use the dueling room without them there. They couldn't tell the rest of their friends the truth about why they were out late since they didn't want to get Hagrid in trouble but thankfully their friends accepted that they must have had a good reason. One bright side was that Flitwick talked with McGonagall and said he'd still give them dueling lessons on Saturdays so they still had that to look forward to, however Flitwick did say he was disappointed in the two and decided to cancel only one lesson with them.
Friday night soon came and Harry and Hermione left to attend their detention with Hagrid, when they arrived they saw an already upset Malfoy was there, Hagrid informed them that for their detention they would join him in looking for something in the forbidden forest that was killing the unicorns. All three kids looked terrified but had no choice but to follow Hagrid and Fang into the forest, they all walked on a path until they had to split up, Harry and Hermione immediately decided they'd go off together with Fang rather than let Hagrid pair one of them up with Malfoy.
The two kids walked on their path deeper into the forest to try and find whatever was killing the unicorns, Harry called Hedwig through the bond and told her to help them search in a different area so hopefully they could finish the detention soon and leave. The two continued to walk while Harry was holding the lamp, they heard something move in some nearby bushes and Hermione immediately grabbed onto Harry before they saw a rat emerge and run off, Harry asked Hermione "Are you ok?"
Hermione shook her head and said "I don't like this, why did they send us out into the forest to find something that's killing unicorns, what if whatever it is comes after us?!"
Harry could easily see how terrified she was, he felt scared too but his occlumency helped him hide it and he hoped Hedwig would spot something from the air and they'd be able to leave soon. Harry was about to continue when Hermione spoke up "Harry." Looking back at her he saw she was nervous but continued "W-would it be ok if I-I held y-your h-hand?" She saw Harry was confused by the request so she continued "H-holding your h-hand brings me more c-comfort."
Smiling at the reason, Harry spoke "Sure." Harry held out his hand and Hermione took hold of it, the two continued to walk forward hoping they wouldn't run into anything dangerous, Harry thought to Hedwig "Hedwig please hurry, I don't want to face whatever is out there."
Minutes passed and they came across nothing, they heard a few sounds around them but as they walked deeper into the forest the two kids felt more terrified when they realized the forest was starting to become silent. Hermione soon noticed something reflect the light from their lamp and the two saw it looked like silvery blood, looking at each other they knew they had to follow it so they followed the trail of blood. Harry put out the flame from the lamp as they got closer in case something was there, Hermione pointed her wand at their feet and silenced them so they wouldn't make a sound.
The two kids came across a sight that was both beautiful and tragic, lying on the ground unmoving in a puddle of its own silvery blood was a dead unicorn. Both thought if the unicorn was still alive and moving it would look majestic but seeing it dead was tragic, suddenly the two heard something and quickly hid behind some bushes as they saw a cloaked figure approach the dead body. Both Harry and Hermione felt shaken when they saw the cloaked figure appear, they saw the figure lift up one hand and they saw it was holding a wand, suddenly a red spell shot out from the wand and cut across the unicorn causing more blood to come out. Both kids covered their mouth in horror and felt sick as they saw the cloaked figure bend down to the new wound, they then heard a slurping sound and they realized the figure was drinking the blood of the unicorn.
Both kids tried their best not to make a single move or sound, whatever this thing was they wanted nothing to do with it, however Fang got too close and when he spotted the figure he let out a yelp before barking. They tried to tell Fang to be quiet but it was too late, the figure looked up and they could see the silvery blood coming from its mouth, both kids screamed but then Hermione remembered what she needed to do and quickly fired a jet of red sparks in the air hoping Hagrid would see it and come soon. Harry pointed his wand just as the figure fully stood up and turned towards them, before Harry had the chance to use a spell suddenly an intense pain came from his scar.
The figure started to approach the two, Fang ran off and Hermione was about to follow when she then saw Harry fall to his knees and let out a yell in pain as he covered his scar. The pain caught Harry off guard causing him to drop his wand, Hermione felt panicked and tried to help Harry up but something was hurting him, the figure was getting closer so she realized she needed to do something. Despite being shaken Hermione pointed her wand at the figure and yelled "Incendio!"
A jet of flames rushed to the figure only for the figure to raise its own wand at the flames. Hermione saw her flames hit the figure but to her horror the flames did nothing, the figure was left without a burn as the flames fell around it and vanished. Hermione aimed again and yelled "Frictionless, flipendo!"
The two spells fired and the first one hit but as the second approached the figure the figure waved its wand and deflected the spell away from itself. Hermione saw the figure was still approaching, glancing down she saw the figure was floating instead of walking. Harry felt the pain become worse, he tried to put up his shields but he couldn't focus enough, Harry yelled out "Hermione run!"
Instead of running Hermione stood between Harry and the figure and yelled "Flipendo, expelliarmus, diffindo, petrificus totalus!"
The spells did nothing as the figure waved its wand and deflected every spell sent its way, the figure was about to reach the two kids and started to lift its hand towards them. Hermione didn't know what else she could do, she fired a jet of sparks at the figure but it only made the figure pause for a moment before it continued forward. Harry saw the figure was about to reach Hermione, despite being in pain Harry rapidly moved his hand around before managing to find his wand, he pointed his wand at a nearby rock and sent it flying with as much force as he could towards the figure. The rock hit the figure in the chest causing it to stumble back and they heard what sounded like a mixture of two voices call out in pain. The impact distracted the figure and Harry felt the pain in his scar vanish, feeling the pain vanish Harry quickly put up his shields and managed to get to his feet.
The two kids kept their eyes focused on the figure as they backed away getting ready to run away but they heard the figure let out a yell as it rushed to the two of them. Both kids were caught off guard and the figure was about to reach them when suddenly something jumped over the two kids and landed in front of them, they heard an impact and the figure was thrown back. The figure landed on the ground before turning to them, it let out a yell before it took off deeper into the forest.
Harry and Hermione held onto each other as they watched the cloaked figure take off, seeing it was gone the two turned to the one that saved them and they saw it was a centaur. The centaur turned to the two and asked "Are you both alright?"
The two were still shaken but managed to nod, Harry ended up asking "W-what was that thing?"
The centaur turned in the direction the figure fled and said "Something dark that shouldn't exist."
The centaur introduced himself as Firenze, before the kids could do the same he spoke saying he already knows their names as they have been mentioned in the stars. Firenze turned to the unicorn's dead body and said "It's sad when something so beautiful is brought down by something dark."
Hermione managed to speak "W-we saw it was drinking the unicorn's blood."
Firenze spoke "With what that thing needs to stay alive it's not surprising that it drinks the blood of the unicorn, it is said that the blood of a unicorn can save even those that are on the brink of death but to slay such a majestic creature and drink its blood will curse them with a half-life."
Harry asked "What would be so desperate that it would do something like that?"
Firenze turned to Harry and asked "Can you think of none that would hold on until they could return to power, one that would bring about a darkness unlike anything before, one that has been wanting to return to power after being banished ten years ago?"
At the mention of ten years Harry felt his blood turn cold, he reached up and traced a finger over his scar before saying just barely louder than a whisper "Voldemort."
Hermione flinched at the name and Firenze nodded and spoke "A dark being such as him would do anything to survive."
Harry came to a realization that terrified him, he turned to Hermione and said "Hermione, I think Quirrell is the one trying to steal the stone, he wants to use the elixir of life to restore Voldemort."
Flinching again Hermione asked "How are you so sure?"
Harry remained silent for a moment before he spoke "When I'm around Quirrell my scar starts to hurt, sometimes it feels like an annoying itch but sometimes it feels like a stabbing pain, when the figure faced us I felt the pain return but worse than before, it only happens around him."
Hermione gasped before saying "Harry why haven't you told me before, why haven't you told a teacher before?!"
"I don't think any teacher will believe me, my only proof is saying my scar hurts and I'd be accusing a teacher, no one would believe me." Harry thought about the times he tried to tell someone how the Dursleys treated him, he still felt the scars on his back Vernon gave him.
Firenze cut in "I will guide you two back to safety."
Firenze helped the two onto his back and took off, Harry felt Hermione wrap her arms tightly around him and he could tell she was still shaken from what happened. The three soon saw a rushing Hagrid that was being followed by a slower Draco and Fang, coming to a stop Firenze let them off and Hagrid asked what happened but before they could say anything they were met by two more centaurs. One of them seemed angry and said "Firenze, I didn't think you would sink so low as to allow yourself to be nothing more than a ride for humans."
Firenze spoke "I am not like you Bane, I would not stand aside and allow two innocent children to be killed like you would."
Bane angrily said "You had interfered with what the stars had foretold, Harry Potter was supposed to die in the forest!"
Hermione gasped and took hold of Harry's hand, Firenze spoke "You are allowing your hatred of humans to blind you Bane, these two are important, there will come a time when we must decide to either take a stand against what will come or stand aside and let it happen."
The third centaur spoke up "What has happened cannot be changed, whatever this interference has cause will be because of you Firenze, let's return already."
Firenze nodded and informed Hagrid they will deal with what has happened to the unicorns before they turned to leave, just before they left they saw Hedwig arrive and land on Harry's shoulder, she apologized for not being there to help Harry. Firenze saw this and smiled and said "You share a beautiful bond, remember that those bonds will give you strength when you have none left."
Harry was surprised and confused by what Firenze just said, how did he know about the bond he had with Hedwig and what did he mean by those bonds, the centaurs turned to leave but before they were gone Harry called out "Firenze!" Turning back, they saw Harry bow to them and say "Thank you for saving us, I'm grateful to you!"
Hermione bowed as well and thanked Firenze for saving their lives, this surprised the centaurs as they had never seen a human show them respect, the moment was ruined when Malfoy said "Bowing to mere beasts, how pathetic."
Bane looked angry before saying "Firenze, Ronan, let's go."
They watched the centaurs leave before Hagrid decided to return them to the castle, Harry told Hedwig to head back to the owlery so she could rest. Once they were back in the tower Harry and Hermione sat on the couch and went over everything that happened. They now believed Quirrell was working for Voldemort and Snape might be helping him, while Hermione wanted to tell a teacher she agreed with Harry to wait until they had better proof before they accused a teacher of trying to steal the philosopher's stone. They both agreed that as long as Dumbledore was at Hogwarts then the stone was safe since he was the only person Voldemort was afraid of.
The two saw it was late and decided to head to bed, however before they could Harry decided to do something, he called Hermione and when she looked over Harry pulled her into a hug. Hermione was surprised since Harry was never the one to start the hug, Harry then spoke "Thank you Hermione, even though you were scared you stood ready to protect me, thank you for saving me."
Hermione hugged Harry back tightly and said "You saved me from the troll and you saved me tonight when you launched that rock at him, I guess we need to stay together so we can keep saving each other."
Hermione felt her face turn bright red at what she just said, before she could try and say something to take it back she heard Harry say "Yeah let's stay together and keep each other safe."
Hermione smiled at hearing that and hugged Harry just a bit tighter, soon the two separated and Harry was about to leave when he felt Hermione take hold of his hand, looking back at her he saw Hermione looked nervous and scared, she spoke in a quiet voice "Harry, I don't want to be alone tonight."
Harry knew after tonight they might have nightmares, he realized that with occlumency he could stop himself from having them but Hermione couldn't, Harry told Hermione to get ready for bed and meet back up in the common room in a few minutes. Harry arrived at his dorm and quickly pulled out some parchment and a quill and wrote two letters, he soon called Hedwig and after she arrived at the window he told her to deliver the first letter to Gringotts then deliver the second letter to Flourish and Blotts, he decided to buy a book on occlumency to give to Hermione so she wouldn't have to deal with nightmares anymore. Once Hedwig took off Harry got ready for bed and grabbed a blanket and pillow before heading back downstairs.
Arriving at the common room he saw Hermione was already there with her own pillow and blanket and she was wearing pink pajamas with bunny slippers. Harry levitated two couches close together and they both got on their own, Hermione asked if she could hold Harry's hand to which he agreed. They set an alarm spell to wake them up before anyone else would, soon the two fell asleep holding hands, Hermione smiled in her sleep as she dreamt about a green eyed messy haired boy.
The next morning Harry and Hermione were woken up by the alarm, both had a peaceful sleep but they felt the color drain from their faces when they saw a smirking Fay and Sally-Anne standing there. Fay spoke "We were originally worried when we saw Hermione wasn't in her bed but then we find the two of you here."
Sally-Anne spoke "You both certainly looked happy and peaceful."
Harry and Hermione blushed as they stammered out an explanation about how they were comforting each other after going in the forest, by the end they got the two girls to agree not to tell anyone however Hermione knew the two were going to tease her nonstop. Harry and Hermione went up to their dorms to get changed while the two girls decided to wait for them, once they were gone Fay asked "Can you send me a copy?"
Sally-Anne pulled out a camera and said "Of course, I'll wait for the summer so Hermione doesn't try and destroy it."
During breakfast Harry and Hermione sat with their group of friends away from most of the students, they told Neville and Ron what happened in the forest and what they thought about Quirrell and Snape, the four friends agreed to keep an eye on the teachers and to keep this between the four of them. Harry glanced up at the teachers' table and saw Dumbledore was there but Quirrell and Snape weren't, he felt sooner or later he might have to face one of those two.
Please comment and let me know what you thought of the chapter.