Chapter Eight: Norbert and The Creature
January 26th, 1992
In the weeks since spotting Snape and Quirrell talk in the forest, Harry had mentioned his thoughts about the ordeal to his friends and his cousins. Hermione seemed to think that Harry might be right about Quirrell, but Ron was skeptical. Vince and Kathy trusted his instincts, but they said that he should mention the burning of his scar to Uncle Herbert. So, after watching the Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw game end in a tie, Harry resolved to go to his uncle. Bracing himself, he knocked on his uncle's office door.
"Door's open, let yourself in." Once taking a step inside, Harry took in the sight of his uncle's office. On the back wall was a map of the world with points to highlight all the magical schools in the world, along with other magical places. The other walls had bookshelves with history books from several countries, both magical and mundane. The floor was covered with a gray carpet with the Hogwarts crest on it. Sitting behind a mahogany desk was Uncle Herbert. When he looked up from his desk, he smiled. "Ah, Harry! Good to see you. What brings you to my office today?"
Harry took a deep breath as he locked the door behind him. As he went to sit in the blue armchair across from his uncle's desk, he noticed a privacy ward being cast by his uncle. Harry appreciated the consideration, and spoke what was on his mind. "It's about my scar. For some reason, it hurts whenever I'm around Professors Snape and Quirrell at the same time. It's happened twice now."
A grimace appeared on Herbert's face. "That is most troubling. Snape may have been a Death Eater, but he's 'reformed' — or so Dumbledore says. Your scar has no reason to react to him. As for Quirrell, the only reason that it would react to him is —" he paused and scrunched his brow. "Let me check something. Accio sneakascope!" The strange object flew into his hand, and Herbert got up from his chair. He got closer to Harry, and held the sneakascope up to Harry's scar. The sneakascope went absolutely wild with sound and shaking before Herbert pulled it away. "Confound it all, I was hoping to be wrong."
"What's wrong with my scar?"
Herbert let out a deep sigh. "Dark magic of the worst sort. It reacts to other things of a similar nature, so that would mean that Quirrell had such an object. As for what you should do — focus on your school work. I'll talk to Dumbledore about this, and during the summer we'll see what we can do about removing that dark magic in your scar."
Harry did want to help, but he knew better than to argue with his uncle.
Later that evening, Harry, his friends, and his cousins found their way over to Hagrid's Hut to see him. Of course, little did they know that Hagrid had a dragon egg in his possession. After it hatched, Hagrid had named it Norbert, and Ron said that he'd contact his brother Charlie to move the dragon. Hagrid had been hesitant, but he eventually relented. They scheduled the meeting for two Saturdays from then after curfew, and the six children went on their merry way.
February 9th, 1992
The weeks had passed quickly, and Harry had been told by his uncle that Dumbledore had said he'd take a look into Quirrell's actions, but it would take time. The Auror Investigators could only work so fast, after all. Gryffindor had beaten Ravenclaw in Quidditch that morning, only getting the Quidditch Cup by a hair's margin. That night, Harry and his friends had snuck out under the invisibility cloak to help secure the transfer of Norbert. It went off without a hitch — at least until the cloak caught on a door and they ran into Malfoy. McGonagall wasn't too happy about finding four students up past curfew, so she sent them off to detention with Hagrid.
They had split up to search for injured unicorns, and Harry chose to go with Hermione and Fang. It was a decently long trip until they saw a creature covered in a black shawl biting down on the back of a unicorn. Hermione let out a scream that Harry quickly cut off by placing his hand over her mouth, but the creature had already noticed them. Before the creature could close the distance, Harry cast red sparks from his wand into the sky, causing the hooded figure to flee. Not long after Hagrid showed up with Ron and Malfoy. The unicorn had lost some blood, but Hagrid said that it would probably make a full recovery. As they went back to the castle, Hermione spoke to Harry. "Sorry for alerting that thing. I gave away our position."
Harry shook his head. "None of that now. You were scared, it's understandable. Personally, I'm a bit surprised that I didn't panic too much. But still, it must be desperate to drink unicorn blood — and only one individual I can think of would be that desperate."
He let that hang in the air, and both Hermione and Ron seemed to understand the unspoken implication — Voldemort was not truly dead, and he was probably the true force that was after the Philosopher's Stone.
