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Things couldn't have been worse. Filch took us to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor. We sat there waiting, not saying a word to each other. Hermione was trembling beside me, and each time I went to put my arm around her, she just shook her head. The only thing that stood out in my mind, which I found rather silly, was that we were stupid enough to leave the Cloak on top of the tower. There was no way out. We were in trouble enough, add in Norbert and the Cloak, and we might as well be on the train going back home. I didn't think we could get into much more trouble. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville.

"Harry! I was trying to find you to warn you. I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag..."
"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."

It was the first time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She just kept her head down, and I realized I was doing the same. I lifted my head just as Professor McGonagall answered her own question.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on. It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"

I looked over at Neville and saw that he looked hurt. I made a mental note to say sorry to Neville when we got back to the dorms.

"I'm disgusted. Five students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! As for you Miss. Granger and Miss. Sage, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr. Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you. All four of you will receive detention, yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous. And fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."
"Fifty?"
"Fifty points each."
"Professor, please..."
"You can't..."
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now, get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."

We all got up and left. Neville was sobbing the whole way back, and I kept tell him how sorry we all were, and that we never meant to get him in trouble. I didn't think it helped though. We'd just lost two hundred points in one night. You can't even say sorry enough times to make someone understand, let alone forgive you.

As we parted ways, Hermione and I just sat on our beds. Either of us felt like talking, but we also didn't feel like sleeping either. I guess despite everything, the joy of Norbert being gone, even if Hagrid was hurt, still hung around in our heads.

"Poor Neville..."

I didn't realize I had said the words until Hermione looked up at me. She seemed to understand though.

"It's not his fault he overheard us and tried to warn us about Draco... I just wish he hadn't gotten into as much trouble as we had..."
"We was still out of bed, but you're right. Even half of that would've been fine... He was trying to get us to go back to the dorm..."

Hermione and I were quiet again after that, and we both silently agree to try to sleep. I slipped under the covers, but sleep was the one thing my brain didn't want to do. I swear I could still hear Neville sobbing because of how much trouble we had gotten him into.

I didn't feel like leaving the dorm the next morning. Some of the other first years wanted to take me to Madam Pomfrey, thinking I was sick, but I just shook my head and said that I just didn't sleep well. Hermione was the one to finally get me out of bed, saying that if I didn't, she'd have Fred and George take me to the hospital wing.

As we walked around the school, I quickly learned that everyone knew that Gryffindor had lost two hundred points, and the reason behind it.

"Have you seen Neville, I wanted to ask him how he's doing?"
"He's been hiding in different places, but he's mostly in the green house..."

Hermione and I decided after lunch to just spend the rest of our free time in the common room. Since exams were only a few weeks away, we spent all of our free time revising. It kept us away from everyone else, and didn't give anyone a chance to talk to us, since they would also be revising.

Harry and I were walking back from the library one afternoon when we heard something. Harry and I looked at each other before walking closer. One the other side was Quirrell's voice.

"No, no, not again, please..."

It sound like someone was threatening him. Harry and I walked closer.

"All right... All right..."

Quirrell suddenly came out of the room, straightening his turban. He was pale and looked like he was about to cry. Quirrell walked out of sight. I looked over at Harry and we could both tell that Quirrell hadn't notice us standing there. I looked down the hall Quirrell had gone down, and I saw Harry slip into the room. I was just reaching the door when Harry came back out.

"Snape was with him."
"How do you know? No one else came out."
"There was another door, and it was open a bit..."

I knew what Harry was hinting at. Quirrell had finally broke and told Snape what he had done to protect the Stone. We went back to the library, were Hermione was testing Ron. Harry and I quickly told them about what just happened.

"Snape's done it, then! If Quirrell told him how to break his Anti-Dark force spell..."
"There's still Fluffy, though..."
"I don't know..."
"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid. I bet there's a book somewhere in here, telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do, Harry?"

I could tell Ron wanted to go on adventure, but Hermione answered before Harry could.

"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves, we'll be thrown out for sure."
"But we've got no proof! Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he was nowhere near the third floor, who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

Hermione and I were convinced, but Ron wasn't. I could tell he really wanted to do something.

"If we just do a bit of poking around..."
"No, we've done enough poking around."
"Harry's right... No, Ron, he is."

I could tell Ron didn't like the fact that I wasn't taking his side, but he knew me well enough not to question it.

***

The following morning, Harry, Hermione, Neville and I all received notes during breakfast. They all said the same thing.

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the Entrance Hall.
Prof. M. McGonagall

I could tell from Harry's face that he'd forgotten all about the detention, and I kick him under the table. How could he have forgotten that we had detention as well as the loss of points. I was half expecting Hermione to complain about losing a night of revision, but she knew that we deserved what we got, just like the rest of us did.

At eleven that night, we said our goodbyes to Ron and left for the Entrance Hall. When we reach it, Filch was already there, and so was Draco. I think we all forgot that he also had detention. I guess a part of me just figured he had already done his time.

"Follow me."

Filch lit a lamp and lead us outside. He talked the whole way, but I only half listened. I was just trying to remember the path back to the school.

"I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh? Oh, yes..."

I looked around at the surroundings, not wanting to hear what Filch had to say. Though it wasn't that dark out, everything look pretty much the same. There wasn't anything to distract me.

"Hang you by your wrists from ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my offices, keep 'em well oiled in case they’re ever needed..."

I realized then where we were. I felt a little better knowing that Hagird was going to be the one giving us our detention.

"Is that you Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."

I smiled a bit. So Hagrid was the one giving us our detention. I guess it showed on my face because Filch spoke up, though it looked like he was saying to Harry.

"I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with this oaf? Well think again boy, it's into the Forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece."

Neville let out a little moan and I patted him on his back. Which made me walk right into Draco who seemed to have stopped right in his track.
"The Forest? We can't go in there at night... There's all sorts of things in there... Werewolves, I heard."
"That's your lookout, isn't it? Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"

Hagrid came over to us out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.

"Abou' time. I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Sara, Hermione?"
"I shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid. They're here to be punished, after all."
"That's why you're late, is it? Bin lecturing them, eh? 'Sont your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over here."
"I'll be back at dawn... For what's left of them."

Filch left for the castle, leaving us alone with Hagrid. Draco turned to Hagrid, and I could tell he was scared.

"I'm not going in that forest."
"Scared Draco?"
"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts. Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay fer it."
"But this is servants stuff, it's not for students to do. I thought we'd be writing lines or something. If my father knew I was doing this, he'd..."
"Tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts. Writin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out. If yeh think yeh father'd rather you were expelled, then get back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on!"

Hagrid's words came out fiercely, but I knew they were true. Though I'd never know students to be sent into the Forest before. I looked over at Draco, and saw him glaring at Hagrid, but after a few seconds, he dropped his gaze. I half smile at that.

"Right then, now listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight an' I don' want no one takin' risk. Follow me over here a moment."

He led us to the very edge of the Forest. Holding his lamp up high he pointed down a narrow, winding earth trail that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted our hair as we looked into the Forest.

“Look there. See that stuff shinin’ on the ground? Silvery stuff? That’s unicorn blood. There’s a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. 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 happens if whatever hurt the unicorn fins us first?”
“You are scared.”

I felt a smile appear on my face, glad that Hagrid didn’t see it.

“There’s nothin’ that lives in the Forest that’ll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang. An keep ter the path. Right, now we’re gonna split inter two parties an’ follow the trail in different directions. There’s blood all over the place, it must’ve bin staggerin’ around since last night at least.”
“I want Fang.”

I looked over at Draco and knew he was looking at Fang’s long teeth. Of course.

“All right, but I warn yeh, he’s a coward. So me, Harry and Hermione’ll go one way an Draco, Sara, Neville an’ Fang’ll go the other. Now if any of us find the unicorn, we’ll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wand out an’ ractice now... That’s it... An’ if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an we’ll all come an’ find yeh, so be careful... Let’s go.”

Draco and I looked at each other as we walked down the path. It was dark and silent, and Neville stayed very close to me. Poor guy. We soon reached a fork in the earth. Harry, Hermione and Hagrid took the left path, Draco, Neville, Fang and I took the right.

Every now and then a ray of moonlight lit a spot on the ground where the unicorn blood was, making the ground look silver. What I couldn’t figure out was who hung to me more, Neville or Draco. After a while, I shook both my arms, trying to get feeling in my hands. I walked forwards a little and looked at the blood.

“Poor thing… Do you think we’re getting closer?”

Neither answered me and I just sighed. Neville always seemed scared, but Draco scared was something new, and though at first I wanted to laugh, now that it was just me trying to be brave, it wasn’t laughable anymore. I had only taken a few more steps when Neville let out a scream and shout red sparks into the air.

“What the bloody hell?”

Neville was hiding behind me as I turned my attention to Draco. He seemed scared again.

“Do you know what you could’ve done? You could’ve just told whatever’s out here right where we are!”

Hagrid came through the trees then and just looked at us. He didn’t ask any questions, he just pointed for us to go and we walked with him. After a few minutes we came to the path and I saw Harry and Hermione.

“We’re fine. Draco thought it’d be a great idea to scare Neville.”
“We’ll be lucky ter catch anythin’ now, with the racket you three were makin’. Right, we’re changing groups. Neville, you stay with me an’ Hermione. Harry, you go with Fang, Sara, an’ this idiot.”

As Harry walked over to us, Hagrid said something to him and Harry just nodded. Harry turned to look at me and I just nodded. I’d talk with him later, if we survived this.

We set off into the Forest. We walked for half an hour, and soon our path became almost impossible to follow because of the thick trees. I could also tell the blood was getting thicker. Up ahead was a clearing through the tangled branches of the trees.

“Look…”

Harry held out his arm to stop us, and I could see something white was gleaming on the ground. As we moved closer, I could tell what it was. The unicorn lied there, right in the middle. I knew right away it was dead.

Harry had taken a step forward when a sound from the bushes made us freeze. A hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some kind of stalking creature. He went right to the unicorn, like it didn’t even realize we were there. I wanted to pull Harry back, but my body wouldn’t move. As I watched it, I saw it put its head on the unicorns side and I knew it was drinking the blood.

“AAAAAAAAAAARGH!”

Draco let out a scream, grabbed my hand and bolted, with Fang on our heels. Though Draco didn’t look it, we was a fast runner, and held a tight grip. We made it all the way back to the castle when Draco finally seemed to realize that we was holding my hand. He let go, and turned to the dorms.

“We can’t just go. We left Harry behind!”
“It’s Potter. He can take care of himself. You should thank me, if I’d left you there, you could’ve…”
“Died? What do you think might happen to Harry since we left him alone?”

I could tell Draco didn’t want to think about it. Sure, I was thankful that he had thought it through enough to grab me before running away, but in doing so, we left Harry behind, with no one to help him.

“I’m going back to Hagrid’s hut to wait for them. Are you coming or not?”
“Potter’s probably already on his way back. It’d be best for you to just go back to the dorms…”

Draco didn’t look at me, but there was something in his voice that made me smile.

“Draco Malfoy, are you worried about me?”
“Of course not!”

Draco turned and walked down the hall. I turned to look outside. I don’t know how long I waited, but soon I saw Harry, Hermione and Neville walking back to the castle.

“Harry!”

I flung my arms around him and looked him over. He didn’t seem hurt, but there were twigs in his hair and robe.

“Let’s get back to the dorm. Ron will want to hear all about this.”

***

When we walked into the common room, I saw the Ron had fallen asleep there waiting for us. It was hard to wake him up, but once we had, he became very interested in what had happened. Once Ron was filled in though, Harry couldn’t stop pacing. I could tell he was still shaking.

“Snape wants the stone for Voldemort… And Voldemort’s waiting in the Forest… And all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich…”
“Stop saying the name!”
“Firenze saved me, but he shouldn’t have done… Bane was furious… He was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen… They must show that Voldemort’s coming back… Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me… I suppose that’s written in the stars as well.”
“Will you stop saying the name!”
“Ron, will you…”
“So all I’ve got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone, then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off… Well, I suppose Bane’ll be happy.”

Ron looked like he was about to say more, but I held him back. There was no way Harry was going to stop saying the name. Instead, Hermione spoke up.

“Harry, everyone says that Dumbledore is the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won’t touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that’s a very imprecise branch of magic.”

We talked until we say the sky light up. We went to bed extremely tired, and with sore throats. Hermione and I didn’t bother with the normal good night, we pulled up the covers and went to sleep. Though I could tell something bad was going to happen.

Description
Things couldn't have been worse. Filch took us to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor. We sat there waiting, not saying a word to each other. Hermione was trembling beside me, and each time I went to put my arm around her, she just shook her head. The only thing that stood out in my mind, which I found rather silly, was that we were stupid enough to leave the Cloak on top of the tower. There was no way out. We were in trouble enough, add in Norbert and the Cloak, and we might as well be on the train going back home. I didn't think we could get into much more trouble. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville.

"Harry! I was trying to find you to warn you. I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag..."
"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."

It was the first time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She just kept her head down, and I realized I was doing the same. I lifted my head just as Professor McGonagall answered her own question.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on. It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"

I looked over at Neville and saw that he looked hurt. I made a mental note to say sorry to Neville when we got back to the dorms.

"I'm disgusted. Five students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! As for you Miss. Granger and Miss. Sage, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr. Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you. All four of you will receive detention, yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous. And fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."
"Fifty?"
"Fifty points each."
"Professor, please..."
"You can't..."
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now, get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."

We all got up and left. Neville was sobbing the whole way back, and I kept tell him how sorry we all were, and that we never meant to get him in trouble. I didn't think it helped though. We'd just lost two hundred points in one night. You can't even say sorry enough times to make someone understand, let alone forgive you.

As we parted ways, Hermione and I just sat on our beds. Either of us felt like talking, but we also didn't feel like sleeping either. I guess despite everything, the joy of Norbert being gone, even if Hagrid was hurt, still hung around in our heads.

"Poor Neville..."

I didn't realize I had said the words until Hermione looked up at me. She seemed to understand though.

"It's not his fault he overheard us and tried to warn us about Draco... I just wish he hadn't gotten into as much trouble as we had..."
"We was still out of bed, but you're right. Even half of that would've been fine... He was trying to get us to go back to the dorm..."

Hermione and I were quiet again after that, and we both silently agree to try to sleep. I slipped under the covers, but sleep was the one thing my brain didn't want to do. I swear I could still hear Neville sobbing because of how much trouble we had gotten him into.

I didn't feel like leaving the dorm the next morning. Some of the other first years wanted to take me to Madam Pomfrey, thinking I was sick, but I just shook my head and said that I just didn't sleep well. Hermione was the one to finally get me out of bed, saying that if I didn't, she'd have Fred and George take me to the hospital wing.

As we walked around the school, I quickly learned that everyone knew that Gryffindor had lost two hundred points, and the reason behind it.

"Have you seen Neville, I wanted to ask him how he's doing?"
"He's been hiding in different places, but he's mostly in the green house..."

Hermione and I decided after lunch to just spend the rest of our free time in the common room. Since exams were only a few weeks away, we spent all of our free time revising. It kept us away from everyone else, and didn't give anyone a chance to talk to us, since they would also be revising.

Harry and I were walking back from the library one afternoon when we heard something. Harry and I looked at each other before walking closer. One the other side was Quirrell's voice.

"No, no, not again, please..."

It sound like someone was threatening him. Harry and I walked closer.

"All right... All right..."

Quirrell suddenly came out of the room, straightening his turban. He was pale and looked like he was about to cry. Quirrell walked out of sight. I looked over at Harry and we could both tell that Quirrell hadn't notice us standing there. I looked down the hall Quirrell had gone down, and I saw Harry slip into the room. I was just reaching the door when Harry came back out.

"Snape was with him."
"How do you know? No one else came out."
"There was another door, and it was open a bit..."

I knew what Harry was hinting at. Quirrell had finally broke and told Snape what he had done to protect the Stone. We went back to the library, were Hermione was testing Ron. Harry and I quickly told them about what just happened.

"Snape's done it, then! If Quirrell told him how to break his Anti-Dark force spell..."
"There's still Fluffy, though..."
"I don't know..."
"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid. I bet there's a book somewhere in here, telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do, Harry?"

I could tell Ron wanted to go on adventure, but Hermione answered before Harry could.

"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves, we'll be thrown out for sure."
"But we've got no proof! Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he was nowhere near the third floor, who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

Hermione and I were convinced, but Ron wasn't. I could tell he really wanted to do something.

"If we just do a bit of poking around..."
"No, we've done enough poking around."
"Harry's right... No, Ron, he is."

I could tell Ron didn't like the fact that I wasn't taking his side, but he knew me well enough not to question it.

***

The following morning, Harry, Hermione, Neville and I all received notes during breakfast. They all said the same thing.

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the Entrance Hall.
Prof. M. McGonagall

I could tell from Harry's face that he'd forgotten all about the detention, and I kick him under the table. How could he have forgotten that we had detention as well as the loss of points. I was half expecting Hermione to complain about losing a night of revision, but she knew that we deserved what we got, just like the rest of us did.

At eleven that night, we said our goodbyes to Ron and left for the Entrance Hall. When we reach it, Filch was already there, and so was Draco. I think we all forgot that he also had detention. I guess a part of me just figured he had already done his time.

"Follow me."

Filch lit a lamp and lead us outside. He talked the whole way, but I only half listened. I was just trying to remember the path back to the school.

"I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh? Oh, yes..."

I looked around at the surroundings, not wanting to hear what Filch had to say. Though it wasn't that dark out, everything look pretty much the same. There wasn't anything to distract me.

"Hang you by your wrists from ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my offices, keep 'em well oiled in case they’re ever needed..."

I realized then where we were. I felt a little better knowing that Hagird was going to be the one giving us our detention.

"Is that you Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."

I smiled a bit. So Hagrid was the one giving us our detention. I guess it showed on my face because Filch spoke up, though it looked like he was saying to Harry.

"I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with this oaf? Well think again boy, it's into the Forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece."

Neville let out a little moan and I patted him on his back. Which made me walk right into Draco who seemed to have stopped right in his track.
"The Forest? We can't go in there at night... There's all sorts of things in there... Werewolves, I heard."
"That's your lookout, isn't it? Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"

Hagrid came over to us out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.

"Abou' time. I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Sara, Hermione?"
"I shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid. They're here to be punished, after all."
"That's why you're late, is it? Bin lecturing them, eh? 'Sont your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over here."
"I'll be back at dawn... For what's left of them."

Filch left for the castle, leaving us alone with Hagrid. Draco turned to Hagrid, and I could tell he was scared.

"I'm not going in that forest."
"Scared Draco?"
"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts. Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay fer it."
"But this is servants stuff, it's not for students to do. I thought we'd be writing lines or something. If my father knew I was doing this, he'd..."
"Tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts. Writin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out. If yeh think yeh father'd rather you were expelled, then get back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on!"

Hagrid's words came out fiercely, but I knew they were true. Though I'd never know students to be sent into the Forest before. I looked over at Draco, and saw him glaring at Hagrid, but after a few seconds, he dropped his gaze. I half smile at that.

"Right then, now listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight an' I don' want no one takin' risk. Follow me over here a moment."

He led us to the very edge of the Forest. Holding his lamp up high he pointed down a narrow, winding earth trail that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted our hair as we looked into the Forest.

“Look there. See that stuff shinin’ on the ground? Silvery stuff? That’s unicorn blood. There’s a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. 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 happens if whatever hurt the unicorn fins us first?”
“You are scared.”

I felt a smile appear on my face, glad that Hagrid didn’t see it.

“There’s nothin’ that lives in the Forest that’ll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang. An keep ter the path. Right, now we’re gonna split inter two parties an’ follow the trail in different directions. There’s blood all over the place, it must’ve bin staggerin’ around since last night at least.”
“I want Fang.”

I looked over at Draco and knew he was looking at Fang’s long teeth. Of course.

“All right, but I warn yeh, he’s a coward. So me, Harry and Hermione’ll go one way an Draco, Sara, Neville an’ Fang’ll go the other. Now if any of us find the unicorn, we’ll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wand out an’ ractice now... That’s it... An’ if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an we’ll all come an’ find yeh, so be careful... Let’s go.”

Draco and I looked at each other as we walked down the path. It was dark and silent, and Neville stayed very close to me. Poor guy. We soon reached a fork in the earth. Harry, Hermione and Hagrid took the left path, Draco, Neville, Fang and I took the right.

Every now and then a ray of moonlight lit a spot on the ground where the unicorn blood was, making the ground look silver. What I couldn’t figure out was who hung to me more, Neville or Draco. After a while, I shook both my arms, trying to get feeling in my hands. I walked forwards a little and looked at the blood.

“Poor thing… Do you think we’re getting closer?”

Neither answered me and I just sighed. Neville always seemed scared, but Draco scared was something new, and though at first I wanted to laugh, now that it was just me trying to be brave, it wasn’t laughable anymore. I had only taken a few more steps when Neville let out a scream and shout red sparks into the air.

“What the bloody hell?”

Neville was hiding behind me as I turned my attention to Draco. He seemed scared again.

“Do you know what you could’ve done? You could’ve just told whatever’s out here right where we are!”

Hagrid came through the trees then and just looked at us. He didn’t ask any questions, he just pointed for us to go and we walked with him. After a few minutes we came to the path and I saw Harry and Hermione.

“We’re fine. Draco thought it’d be a great idea to scare Neville.”
“We’ll be lucky ter catch anythin’ now, with the racket you three were makin’. Right, we’re changing groups. Neville, you stay with me an’ Hermione. Harry, you go with Fang, Sara, an’ this idiot.”

As Harry walked over to us, Hagrid said something to him and Harry just nodded. Harry turned to look at me and I just nodded. I’d talk with him later, if we survived this.

We set off into the Forest. We walked for half an hour, and soon our path became almost impossible to follow because of the thick trees. I could also tell the blood was getting thicker. Up ahead was a clearing through the tangled branches of the trees.

“Look…”

Harry held out his arm to stop us, and I could see something white was gleaming on the ground. As we moved closer, I could tell what it was. The unicorn lied there, right in the middle. I knew right away it was dead.

Harry had taken a step forward when a sound from the bushes made us freeze. A hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some kind of stalking creature. He went right to the unicorn, like it didn’t even realize we were there. I wanted to pull Harry back, but my body wouldn’t move. As I watched it, I saw it put its head on the unicorns side and I knew it was drinking the blood.

“AAAAAAAAAAARGH!”

Draco let out a scream, grabbed my hand and bolted, with Fang on our heels. Though Draco didn’t look it, we was a fast runner, and held a tight grip. We made it all the way back to the castle when Draco finally seemed to realize that we was holding my hand. He let go, and turned to the dorms.

“We can’t just go. We left Harry behind!”
“It’s Potter. He can take care of himself. You should thank me, if I’d left you there, you could’ve…”
“Died? What do you think might happen to Harry since we left him alone?”

I could tell Draco didn’t want to think about it. Sure, I was thankful that he had thought it through enough to grab me before running away, but in doing so, we left Harry behind, with no one to help him.

“I’m going back to Hagrid’s hut to wait for them. Are you coming or not?”
“Potter’s probably already on his way back. It’d be best for you to just go back to the dorms…”

Draco didn’t look at me, but there was something in his voice that made me smile.

“Draco Malfoy, are you worried about me?”
“Of course not!”

Draco turned and walked down the hall. I turned to look outside. I don’t know how long I waited, but soon I saw Harry, Hermione and Neville walking back to the castle.

“Harry!”

I flung my arms around him and looked him over. He didn’t seem hurt, but there were twigs in his hair and robe.

“Let’s get back to the dorm. Ron will want to hear all about this.”

***

When we walked into the common room, I saw the Ron had fallen asleep there waiting for us. It was hard to wake him up, but once we had, he became very interested in what had happened. Once Ron was filled in though, Harry couldn’t stop pacing. I could tell he was still shaking.

“Snape wants the stone for Voldemort… And Voldemort’s waiting in the Forest… And all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich…”
“Stop saying the name!”
“Firenze saved me, but he shouldn’t have done… Bane was furious… He was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen… They must show that Voldemort’s coming back… Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me… I suppose that’s written in the stars as well.”
“Will you stop saying the name!”
“Ron, will you…”
“So all I’ve got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone, then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off… Well, I suppose Bane’ll be happy.”

Ron looked like he was about to say more, but I held him back. There was no way Harry was going to stop saying the name. Instead, Hermione spoke up.

“Harry, everyone says that Dumbledore is the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won’t touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that’s a very imprecise branch of magic.”

We talked until we say the sky light up. We went to bed extremely tired, and with sore throats. Hermione and I didn’t bother with the normal good night, we pulled up the covers and went to sleep. Though I could tell something bad was going to happen.