A/N- Ok I have no idea what happened but someone very kindly pointed out that Chapter sixteen was in fact chapter seventeen. After a lot of confusion this end and going through chapter by chapter I worked out chapter seventeen was up twice (It's been a long day!) Here is the actual chapter sixteen! I really hope you're all enjoying the story!
Chapter Sixteen
The next day the far end of the Slytherin table, near the teachers, had a large sign on it saying losers only and every time Harry, Draco or Pansy tried to sit anywhere else a bag was placed in the seat or more often someone simply told them to piss off.
Harry slammed his bag down and sat at the end of the table. Draco helped himself to porridge and let it plop off his spoon into the bowl.
"I'm fed up of this already. I got 2 points back yesterday and everyone still just glared at me. Even as Flitwick gave me the points!" Pansy said ripping the corner of a bit of toast.
Neville came over with Daphne and sat with them.
"You guys are going to get into trouble." Draco said with a little half smile.
"I don't care." Neville said, "I barely ever get to see you guys. Besides Percy will come steal me away before I ruin Gryffindor's reputation."
"And I think everyone is being stupid. You were only trying to help." Daphne said flicking her hair over her shoulder.
Harry and Pansy smiled and tucked into their food feeling a bit better. They all looked up in shock when Hermione came over and sat with them; carrying her plate of toast.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.
"It's bullying." She said firmly "And I don't approve of bullying in any way to anyone. Yes you lost your house a lot of points but I'm sure you're punishing yourselves enough. And it could have been far worse; you could have been expelled. Besides Hagrid told me what happened and I think it was very good of you to try and help."
"Hagrid told you what happened?" Pansy asked.
"Yes. I spend a lot of time with him and the other teachers." Hermione said quietly, turning her attention back to her food and looking rather upset.
Draco and Harry shook their heads in wonder and rolled with it. Turns out Hermione wasn't so bad once you got to know her and she was a brilliant help with school work which couldn't have come at a better time with exams looming.
Harry mostly thought she was just lonely. She had read more books than anyone Harry knew and it seemed that her love of learning was not shared by the other Gryffindors of her year anyway. It did however fit in with Harry's little group. Apparently no one missed Hermione sitting with them at breakfast which rather broke Pansy and Daphne's hearts when they thought about it and they all came to the conclusion they were the first friends she had at Hogwarts.
It was less than a week later when Harry was sitting alone in history of magic, they had split up him and his friends so they couldn't cause any more trouble, when he received a note saying he had detention that night at eleven o'clock.
After class they walked down to the yard together slowly.
"I suppose the irony that we were in trouble for being out of bed after hours and the punishment is to be out of bed after hours is lost on Madam bitch face." Pansy said slamming her bag down on the grass.
"Wow powerful words from you there Miss Parkinson." Draco smirked and sat down next to her, "To be honest I'd forgotten we'd even got detention as well."
"I just want all this to be over. No one has spoken to me since it happened; apart from Neville but Percy always comes along and drags him off as soon as he spots us. You'd think we had the plague or something."
"How is your mother doing?" Pansy asked.
"Well I got a horrific letter; I'm glad she didn't send a howler to be honest. Even uncle Sirius was cross. Remus was OK; he said he understood at least." Harry shook his head, "How about you?"
"Mum was cross and halved my pocket money for two months. Dad was more worried I could have gotten hurt." Pansy said with a shrug, even half of her pocket money was a lot more than most students got and she had plenty in savings.
"Mum and Dad were spitting feathers. Mum was so worried and Dad was just cross. They expected better of me so I'm told!" Draco said lying back in the grass.
They spent the day trying desperately to focus on classes while thinking about what torture Professor McGonagall had cooked up for them that evening.
Huddled in their cloaks and warmest gloves feeling, scared, tired and cold, Pansy, Draco and Harry waited in the entrance hall. An angry Ron stamped over to them, also all wrapped up, and huffed loudly.
"I can't believe I'm having to do this. It's all your fault." he snapped.
"How is this our fault?" Harry snapped back, "If you hadn't been so desperate to get us into trouble this never would have happened and none of us would be here!"
"Quiet all of you." Filch said marching over, "Useless students; back in the old days we used to hang them from their wrists in the dungeons. Still got the chains; all oiled and clean just in case."
Filch grinned nastily at their shocked faces, "Follow me."
He led them out the castle and towards the forest, "You'll be serving your detention with Hagrid tonight; in the forest."
"In the forest? In the forest that is forbidden?" Pansy asked stopping suddenly.
Filch smirked nastily and let out a horrible laugh.
"Keep walking Parkinson." Harry told her giving her a small push.
"And the irony just keeps growing!" Pansy snarled and pulled her cloak tighter around her.
"Evenin' Mr Filch." Hagrid nodded, he was covered up in his warm moleskin coat and carrying a nasty looking crossbow.
"Here they are Hagrid, have fun with them." Filch grinned.
"No need for that Filch. They'll be perfectly safe wi' me." Hagrid said gruffly.
Filch shrugged and began to walk back to the castle.
Hargid waited until Filch was out of earshot, "Ron go get Fang, me dog, from the house."
Ron huffed and stomped up into the hut.
"I'm sorry you guys got into trouble. Snape came round the next day and helped me get rid o' Norbert. He had a mate who came and got 'im late one nigh'." Hagrid shrugged, "I miss 'im a bit but it's for the best."
"Don't worry about it Hagrid." Pansy smiled, "I'm glad that Norbert is safe and I'm sure he'll be happy with other dragons."
Draco and Harry nodded in agreement.
"Do you still have my…. special cloak?" Harry said, "Mum didn't want me to loose my clothes and that winter cloak was expensive."
Ron came back over followed by Fang, plodding along behind him, who was drooling lots and looked like he just wanted to go back to sleep.
"Well I'm sure the famous Harry Potter can buy another cloak or has slutty mummy spend all of your real Dad's money?" Ron said
"That's enough!" Hagrid barked, "Now the forest is a dangerous place and I wont have you messin' around an' getting' 'urt. Now if you're not goin' to behave I'll get Professor McGonagall to give you another detention."
Ron dropped his head and kicked a stick in annoyance.
"All right then. Follow me." Hagrid said and began to walk into the forest.
They hadn't gone very far when Hagrid told them to stop and made them gather round. Harry looked down and saw a strange silver puddle reflecting the trees in the moonlight.
"What is it?" Pansy asked, crouching down.
Hagrid caught her arm and pulled her back up, "Don't wanna touch it. That's unicorn blood. I found a dead one last week and this one is fresh. It's injured or dead and we need to find it, 'elp it if we can."
"Hagrid why would anyone want to hurt a unicorn?" Draco asked shocked.
"Don't know." Hagrid looked around, it was a scary forest at the best of times but seeing Hagrid afraid made it all it even worse. Harry looked around him and imagined all the creatures and horrors that suddenly seemed to be out to get him; lurking in the shadows.
"Righ' we'll be splittin' into two groups. 'Elp us get as much ground as possibly covered. We wont get through the 'hole forest tonigh' but need to get as far as we can." Hagrid said, " 'Arry and Pansy can come wi' me, Draco and Ron go wi' Fang. Anyone get into trouble send up red sparks, anyone find the poor unicorn, send up green. Everyone clear?"
Ron huffed loudly and grumbled about having to have a detention and getting partnered with Draco, "At least we get Fang."
"Yeah he'll be a huge help." Draco said statistically, rolling his eyes, "If we get attacked by a butterfly he'll save us for sure!"
Ron looked like he was about to scream in frustration but thought better of it and bit his lip. He didn't want to have a bad report going back to McGonagall.
"Righ' off we go!" Hagrid said walking off down one of the paths. Harry and Pansy followed along. The forest quickly grew thicker and darker, if that was even possible, until they were walking in almost complete darkness. Harry and Pansy kept quiet listening out for every sound. Every moving leaf sounded like something ready to attack.
Hagrid was clearly more attuned to the forests noises though because Harry hadn't heard anything when Hagrid pushed them back against a tree.
"Keep quiet. I heard somethin'" Hagrid whispered.
Harry heard a few twigs snap and something that sounded like hooves clattering across the hard earth.
"Oh it's just you Bane, scared me there." Hagrid breathed a sigh of relief.
Harry took good look at the half horse half man in front of him; Harry had never seen a centaur in real life before although he'd seen them in books; mind you there wasn't much that wasn't covered in the Black library.
"Hagrid, what are you doing in the forest? And with students?" Bane said looking blankly over Harry and Pansy.
"Someone has 'urt a unicorn. 'Ave you seen anythin' strange around 'ere?" Hagrid asked.
The centaur looked up at the sky and sighed, "Mars is high tonight."
"Bane, Hagrid." Another centaur arrived and bowed slightly to Hagrid.
"Hello Ronan. I was just asking Bane 'ere if you'd seen anything odd?" Hagrid explained.
"Mars is high in the sky tonight." Ronan said gazing up at the sky.
Hagrid rolled his eyes, "Well thanks. We'd best be gettin' on. Still got a lot of ground to cover. Let me know if you see anything suspicious like."
The centaurs nodded and wondered off looking up at the sky.
"All centaurs are stargazers." he said shaking his head, "Never try and get a straight bloody answer from them."
They kept walking a little while longer when they spotted the red sparks in the sky.
"Hagrid look!" Pansy said pointing up.
Hagrid told them to stay put and took off, running quickly towards the sparks. Harry and Pansy huddled against a tree barely daring to breath.
"I can hear someone coming." Pansy whispered.
Harry nodded in agreement and strained his eyes to see what was coming, "Wait I can see something." Harry spotted another spot of silver blood leading off the path they had been following.
"Harry I think we need to stay put. Hagrid will be back soon." Pansy said spotting the blood.
Harry shook his head and pulled his wand out, "What if it's only hurt, not yet dead? We don't know how long Hagrid is going to be."
Pansy looked around "You're right but Harry we could get hurt."
"We have to try." Harry said.
Pansy pulled out her own wand and nodded to Harry.
They walked very slowly off the path and onto a rough path deeper into the forest. They hadn't gone far when they reached a small clearing and saw a hooded figure bent over the beautiful, broken body of the unicorn. Sliver blood dripping over pure white fur.
Pansy and Harry both, as silently as they could, sent up red sparks. The figure spun round. They couldn't see it's face just the silver blood dripping down it's black cloaked front.
"Run!" Harry shouted moments before his head burst with pain. He couldn't believe how much his head hurt, it was on fire and being stabbed. It shot through him before he could even let out a sound and he fell to the ground. He couldn't think straight, he couldn't think at all apart from the pain he was in.
Pansy turned round and pulled desperately at his arm as the figure grew closer, the pain increasing in Harry's head.
Something jumped over them; the figure ran. It left the clearing within seconds and was gone invisible in the forest.
Harry managed to take deep breaths as the pain subsided from his head to a small stabbing pain he could at least think through.
"You should have left." Harry smiled giving Pansy a hug.
"I wasn't going to leave you." She smiled, "Umm thank you." She said to the centaur that had arrived.
He wasn't one of the centaurs from earlier, he was white blonde with impossibly blue eyes.
"You are welcome young ones." He said looking them over and helping them to their feet, "Harry Potter? You should not be in this forest."
"Yeah starting to get that. Sorry what's your name?" he asked rubbing his head; he could still see flashing lights behind his eyes from the pain.
"My name is Firenze, I know Hagrid well; I shall take you to him now." Firenze said bowing down to his front legs to let them get on.
"Are you sure?" Pansy asked.
He nodded and they climbed on, Pansy sat behind Harry to help hold him on; he was still looking rather woozy.
Firenze took off across the forest, telling them to keep their heads down. It wasn't long before he slowed and let them off. Hagrid came along the path looking very angry followed by Draco and Ron.
"Firenze thank you so much." Hagrid wrapped Harry and Pansy in a hug, "I'm so glad that you two are safe."
"We found the unicorn Hagrid, it was already dead. Something was… drinking from it." Pansy said awkwardly, repulsed even by the thought, "Why would someone do that?"
"Someone must have been very desperate. A unicorn's blood can prolong life and keep even those an inch from death alive but to kill something so pure and innocent you will live a half life, a cursed life." Firenze said shaking his head, "I know of no creature so desperate that belongs in this forest."
Hagrid shifted slightly, "Thank you again…."
"Firenze!" Bane came galloping over, "One of us saw you charging through the forest with these two humans on your back!" he shouted angrily.
"They were in danger." Ronan said carefully, "I'm sure he thought he was only helping."
"We are not their slaves! We are not their beasts to use and dispose of!" Bane spat, "You should be disgusted with yourself."
Hargid put his hands up, "Hold on. What were they in danger from?"
Bane snarled at them and stomped his back leg angrily.
"There was a thing, I don't know what or who it was." Harry said, "But it made my head hurt. When we saw it drinking from the unicorn we sent the sparks but it turned around to attack us."
"I think I must now leave Harry Potter. The planets have been read wrong before, even by us centaurs. Stay safe Harry Potter." Firenze said bowing to Harry and leaving with the other two. Bane still furious with Firenze.
"Are you two all right?" Harry asked Draco and Ron.
"Yeah they're fine. 'pparently Ron saw somethin' move and panicked. Then they started shovin' and it got worse." Hagrid glared at them.
"I'm fine." Draco said. Ron only glared at them arms crossed over his chest.
Pansy through her hands up, "Seriously?! We could have died! We were being attacked and you two were play fighting!"
"Pansy I'm sorry. I shouldn't have joined in." Draco said going over to them, "I'm so glad you guys are OK. I would never have forgiven myself if either of you got hurt."
"Yeah of course." Ron rolled his eyes, "But I'm sure the FAMOUS Harry POTTER could have managed himself. I mean, you're the best wizard ever right?"
"That's enough Ronald!" Hagrid snapped, "I'm goin' to tell Professor McGonagall how you've bein tonight, someone coulda gotten really hurt."
Ron glared at them all sullenly.
Hagrid rubbed Fang's head, "Right lets head back. I'll try find the unicorn in the mornin'. But if it's already dead; not much I can do."
They trudged back to the castle, frozen to the bone and exhausted. Harry and Draco waved goodnight to Pansy and flopped into their beds; to tired to even say goodnight.