The Forbidden Forest
“You four got detention?” exclaimed Ron the next day as Hari, Draco, Hermione and Neville told Ron, Seamus and Dean about the previous night’s escapade and resulting detentions and lost house points.
“Fat luck, mate,” Seamus said, slapping Neville on the shoulder sympathetically.
Ron turned away from Neville and the others and whispered, “So why were you guys even going to Hagrids in the middle of the night anyway?”
On their way to Charms class, Hari, Draco and Hermione recounted the conversation with Hagrid and what Hermione overheard between Snape and Quirrell. He was in full agreement that it sounded like Snape wanted Quirrell to steal the stone for him and was shocked to hear about Hagrid’s winning of the egg.
“You don’t think he told the cloaked guy exactly how to get past Fluffy, do you?” Ron asked quietly as they waited outside the Charms class to go in. He glanced to see if anyone was listening in, but Seamus, Neville and Dean were chatting with Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil about something nearby and seemed not to notice their conversation. “If he told a random stranger about it, who knows what else he could have told them?”
“That’s what I’m worried about. It’s also pretty suspicious that this person conveniently carried around Hagrid’s greatest wish and agreed to just give it to him in exchange for knowing about Fluffy,” Hari added. Before they could continue their conversation, however, Flitwick appeared and they had to go inside the class for a theoretical lesson on fire-making spells.
A couple days later, Minerva came over during dinner to tell Hari, Draco, Neville and Hermione about their upcoming detentions. They were to be meeting in the entrance hall with Hagrid that night and would serve their detentions with him. Without an additional glance at Hari, she went back to the staff table with a curt nod.
At eleven o’clock, Hari, Draco, Hermione and Neville bade goodbye to the others and made their way down to the entrance hall together. Filch was there waiting when they arrived, looking far too pleased for comfort. He led them outside the front doors and down the hill towards Hagrid’s, talking about hanging them from the ceiling by their ankles. Hagrid was standing outside his hut with Fang by his side, carrying a small flickering lantern and a crossbow over his shoulder.
“Evenin’ Filch,” said Hagrid as they neared him. “I hope you haven’t been talkin’ about hangin’ em up by chains again.” He gave them a weak, sympathetic smile.
“Don’t go soft on them, Hagrid. They broke rules and they must be punished,” Filch replied gruffly, glowering at Hagrid. “This is detention, not a play date.”
Hagrid rolled his eyes and swiped his hand dismissively at Filch. “I know tha’. Don’t you have anything else to do ‘sides scaring children?” he replied, smirking behind his bushy beard. Hari swallowed a laugh as Filch glared at Hagrid before turning to go back to the castle, still muttering away about chains and punishment. “Well, you best follow me, now. I don’t want to hold up too much longer,” Hagrid said as he moved towards the forest.
The others exchanged fearful looks behind Hagrid’s back. Draco piped up weakly, “We’re not going in there are we?” He pointed towards the forest with a shaky hand, looking remarkably pale even for him.
“Yeah, you are. That’s how yeh’re servin’ detention tonight,” Hagrid replied, moving towards the forest again.
“But aren’t there werewolves and stuff in there?” Draco asked, still rooted to the spot and gaping into the forest.
Alas, they were left with no other choice but to follow Hagrid into the forest, the four of them huddled together and half jogging to catch up with Hagrid’s immensely longer legs than theirs. As they started making their way through the forest, twigs cracking underfoot and an owl hooting overhead, Hagrid turned over his shoulder to say, “Now, unfortunately sommat’s been tryin’ to get at some unicorns here. One of em is already dead an’ I think another’s been injured.” He gestured to something on the ground, a large puddle of silver liquid splattered across the leaves and grass and shining in the moonlight peeking between the trees. “What I want ter do is to find the poor unicorn and help it. Almost nothin’ worse than killin’ a unicorn, there is.”
Draco shivered. “But Hagrid, won’t whatever’s injuring those unicorns try to injure us?” he asked shakily. He looked about as scared as Hari felt, eyes wide and looking around the forest at every sudden sound.
“Not if you’ve got me or Fang with you,” Hagrid replied easily. Draco did not look convinced, but stayed silent. They reached a fork in the path they had been following and Hagrid paused. “Right. Hermione and Neville, you two come with me this way and Hari and Draco go that way with Fang.” He handed Fang over to Hari and Draco. “Shoot off some red sparks in the air if yeh run into any trouble.”
And so, Hari set off into the heart of the Forest with Malfoy and Fang. They walked in silence for half an hour, walking shoulder to shoulder behind Fang, moving deeper into the forest with every step. It became harder and harder to see where they were going as the trees grew thicker and the path became murkier and overgrown. At every sound, Draco jumped, nearly knocking Hari over every time. Occasionally, they saw a splatter of shining silver blood on a tree trunk or in a puddle on the ground and Hari felt increasingly fearful of running into whatever had clearly injured the unicorn badly.
“Oh, this is awful! Who thought this would be a good idea for a detention?” Draco blurted after half an hour of walking through the forest. “Bloody Dumbledore, probably. How is us getting killed by whatever killed those unicorns even remotely a normal punishment for being out of bed at night?”
Hari smirked at Draco’s ramblings. “I don’t know, but I have to admit, this is a pretty extreme punishment. I thought we’d be writing lines or something,” he replied with a shake of his head. They passed another blood stain on some bushes and continued on.
“I swear, if whatever that thing is kills me, I’m coming back as a ghost just to haunt whoever thought this was a necessary punishment.”
They fell back into silence for a few more minutes, Hari listening intently to the sounds of the forest. Suddenly, Draco took a sharp intake of breath and froze, grabbing Hari’s arm instinctively. Lying on its side on the forest floor was, unmistakably, the unicorn. It was a tragically beautiful sight, the unicorn was a pristine, pure white with a horn sticking out its head and surrounded by a large and continuous flow of silver blood coming from a large wound in its side. Fang cowered beside them as Hari and Draco stared in silent horror at the sight before them.
Before he could process anything else, however, Hari felt a horrific, blinding pain in his forehead and felt his knees give out, yelping in pain. Suddenly, a cloaked figure appeared and swooped down upon the unicorn. Hari’s scar burst with further pain as he watched the hooded figure begin to drink the blood of the unicorn. Hari couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t feel anything but the agony in his forehead as though it were splitting open. As he continued to watch the hooded figure, frozen in terror, Hari’s surroundings went black and silent.
Hari woke up with a gasp, looking around frantically. He was still in the forbidden forest, crumpled in a heap on the earth with half his face in a bush. He turned and saw Draco hovering over him, looking wide eyed and pale. When he saw Hari’s eyes open, Hari saw him draw a breath of relief.
“You gave me a heart attack,” Draco complained as he reached out a hand to Hari to help him to his feet. Hari didn’t pay attention to the way Draco didn’t drop his hand and instead looked around for the figure again. “They left already, the cloaked person. You sort of passed out and I was so focused on seeing if you were okay and didn’t hit your head that I didn’t see where they went.”
“It’s okay. We’ll have to tell Hagrid and the others what we found,” he reassured Draco, squeezing his hand tightly. He glanced over Draco’s shoulder and couldn’t help but to gasp once again as the figure of a very tall man with long blond hair walked towards them. As he drew closer, Hari saw that instead of two human legs on his bottom half, he had the body of a horse.
“A centaur,” Draco whispered as they both came face to face with the centaur.
“It is not safe for you to be in this forest, Hari Potter” the centaur said by way of greeting. “Did you not see what happened to that unicorn?”
Hari glanced back over at the dead unicorn, scar twinging with the memory. He nodded to answer the centaur’s question. “Who are you? How do you know my name?” he asked, glancing sideways at Draco, who was gazing up at the unicorn.
“I am Firenze,” said the centaur, “And even us centaurs know of you, Hari Potter. Which is why it is dangerous for you and your friend to be here. Especially when someone has been slaying unicorns.”
“Why is it so horrible to kill a unicorn compared to other stuff?” Hari asked.
“A unicorn is pure and Defenceless. To slay a unicorn and to drink its blood, as you just witnessed, would give the drinker a cursed life. A half life,” said Firenze seriously. “Only someone that has nothing to lose, but everything to gain, would ever dare to drink the blood of a unicorn. A unicorn’s blood will keep the drinker alive, no matter how close to death, but at a terrible price.” Firenze looked down at the unicorn with a sad smile. “Can you two think of anyone that may fit that mold?”
Hari heaved a heavy breath and looked again at the unicorn which now lay dead and Defenceless, blood glittering in the dim moonlight casted across the forest floor. Draco sighed as well. “So you’re saying that whatever was trying to drink that unicorn’s blood…” Draco started, trailing off at the end of his sentence.
Hari finished his sentence for him. “Voldemort. Are you saying that that was Voldemort drinking that unicorn’s blood?”
Firenze nodded sadly. “Yes. Which is why it is especially dangerous for you to be so close to him,” he replied, looking directly at Hari. “Here. You two can climb on my back and I will take you back to safety. It will be far faster than if you walked.”
Carefully, Hari clambered onto the back of Firenze and Draco followed suit, settling just behind him. Apparently, when Hari had been unconscious, Fang ran off back the way they came. Hari carefully held onto Firenze and felt Draco wrap his arms around Hari’s own middle as Firenze took off through the forest, carrying Draco and Hari through the forest much faster than if they had just been walking.
Once the trees were beginning to thin out significantly and the path on the forest floor was much clearer, Hari heard more rustling in the leaves and another pair of centaurs appeared, both looking very grave. Firenze slowed to a stop and Hari nearly fell off, taking Draco down with him.
Firenze greeted these two centaurs with a slow nod and said, “Bane. Ronan.”
“What are you doing with two humans on your back, Firenze. Are you some kind of common mule?” one of the centaurs, snapped, stomping one of his hooves. He was a larger centaur than Firenze with sleek black hair and a shiny black coat.
“Do you not recognise this one as Hari Potter, Bane? I was merely saving them both from being killed or injured back there,” Firenze replied defensively.
“Remember, Firenze. Us centaurs have sworn never to go against what is written in the stars.” Bane looked up at the sky through the leaves of the trees. “Have you not seen what is to come in the movement of the planets?”
The other centaur, Ronan, who had long auburn hair, protested. “Perhaps Firenze was acting for the best, Bane. These are clearly foals.” He gestured towards Hari and Draco, still staring at the conversation unfolding before them where they still sat on the back of Firenze.
Bane ignored the other centaur’s suggestion and reared on Firenze, yelling, “Us centaurs have sworn never to go against what is written in the stars!” Bane looked up at the sky through the leaves of the trees. “Have you not seen what is to come in the movement of the planets? You have no right to try to fight against what has been fated!”
Before Bane or Ronan could say anything more, Firenze took off through the forest once again. Hari and Draco struggled to hold on, Draco’s grip tightening around Hari’s waist and his chin digging uncomfortably into his shoulder as they ran through the rest of the forest. Finally, after a few minutes of almost nauseating riding through the forest, they found Hagrid, Neville, Hermione and Fang and Firenze stopped again, letting Hari and Draco slide off his back.
“I must leave you here now. Be careful, Hari Potter and his friend,” Firenze said, nodding once to each of them. “I hope that what has been written in the heavens is wrong, for your sake.” And then he took off into the forest once again.
Hari and Draco turned to the others and told them about seeing the hooded figure drinking the unicorn’s blood, Firenze saving them and then their small altercation with Bane and Ronan. Hagrid seemed unsurprised at their story about the other centaurs, saying that they would have found it to be an insult to be ridden by human beings. As they made their way back to the castle together, Hari expressed Firenze’s comments that the person drinking the unicorn’s blood was likely Voldemort.
“As far as I know, that wasn’t You-Know-Who, Hari. He’s nowhere near the school right now,” Hagrid replied, shaking his head. But Hari couldn’t help but notice that Hagrid did not look very convinced by his own statements.
As it was, they were not very comforted as they left Hagrid once again and made their way back up to Gryffindor tower in uncomfortable silence. When they got back to the common room, they found Ron sitting by the dying fire. Neville made his way up to bed while Hari, Hermione and Draco stayed downstairs so they could explain to Ron all about what they had witnessed back in the forest. He gasped when they told him about the cloaked figure and how Firenze thought that it was Voldemort.
“But how could it be You-Know-Who? He can’t be… here, can he?” Ron said fearfully once they finished their story.
“I don’t know. But as soon as I saw them, my scar started hurting really really badly and I fell over.”
Draco sighed, looking out the window that overlooked the forest. “It can’t be a coincidence that they’re drinking unicorn blood to stay alive when, just inside the castle, there’s a stone that will make someone immortal.” He turned away from the window and his eyes met Hari’s. “I think it was You-Know-Who, unfortunately.”
“But then, why are Quirrell and Snape trying to get to the Stone if You-Know-Who is drinking blood to stay alive?” Ron asked.
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Well obviously they’re getting the Stone for You-Know-Who, Ron. If Snape was a Death Eater, he’d want to do his bidding for him to come back, wouldn’t he?”
“I still don’t know if Snape is actually up to no good,” interrupted Hari. “I’ve known him since I was 5 and sure he used to be quite distant and he’s got a generally kinda creepy vibe, but he’s never striked me as evil.” He turned to Draco again. “You probably know him better than me, having him as your godfather.”
Draco shook his head and ran his hands through his blond hair, smoothing it back habitually. “Yeah, like I said, I thought I knew him. But after this year, I’m not so sure,” Draco replied faintly.
“One thing’s for sure, someone’s got to stop whoever wants to steal the Stone,” Hari said with finality, looking around at the other three for agreement. They all nodded and muttered their assent and then they all split off to go to their beds finally, exhausted from that night’s events.