The Forest Beckons
After finding out they were going into the forest, Y/N kept her guard up. It wasn’t just her who had reservations against them going into the forest, though.
“The forest? At night? Students aren’t allowed in the forest, besides,” Malfoy looked into the dark and towering trees of the Forbidden Forest, the full moon causing the trees to cast large shadows over the grounds as a wolf howled, “there are werewolves in there.” Malfoy whispered the last bit and Neville whimpered as he clung to Harry’s robes at the thought of a werewolf being in the forest.
“There’s much more than werewolves in there, I’ll tell ya that.” Filch snickered at the horrified looks he got from Malfoy and Neville. “Should’ve thought ‘bout those wolves before ya got in trouble.”
Hagrid and Fang walked up to the group from the dark, “Bin waitin’ for ‘bout a half hour, what took yer so long?”
Filch narrowed his eyes at Hagrid, “Shouldn’t be too nice with them, they’re here for punishment, after all.”
Hagrid looked perturbed, “thas’ not yer place ter lecture ‘em, you’ve done yer part, I’ll take it from here, Filch. I’ve got some impor’ant business I need ‘em to tend ter.” Hagrid grunted as he readjusted the crossbow in his hands to move the quiver of arrows he had over his shoulder.
“Nighty night.” Filch took a sharp intake of breath and hobbled off, the lantern he was holding yelled in protest at the movements.
Y/N lowly growled at Filch as he walked by her to scare him, and she may or may not have spit at his feet. No one will know it was her, anyway. He hobbled faster after looking around suspiciously and grumbled about the forest. Y/N smiled in triumph at her successful attempt at spooking Filch, though it wasn’t to the extent she wanted to, but she couldn’t get caught. It wasn’t in her best interest to prank or mess with Filch at this moment, as she didn’t wish to lose house points for being out of bed and unruly to the Hogwarts caretaker.
“I’m not going into that forest.” Malfoy stated and Y/N scoffed, ‘Wimp’ she thought.
“Yeh are if yeh wan’ ter stay at Hogwarts.” Hagrid replied, the girl noted the look of glee on Harry’s face after Hagrid said that. He wasn’t very discreet about his joy in Malfoy’s terror. At that moment Y/N realized one thing, she needed to go into the forest with them. She felt a strange tugging in her chest, as if something in the forest was calling to her, and if she wanted to reach that thing and not die, she needed the help of her friends. She snatched the cloak off of her head and watched the shocked faces of the people around her. Harry and Hermione hadn’t expected her to reveal herself.
“Please don’t tell on me, but I’m going into that forest with you.” Y/N pleaded with them, “I need to help you guys, I can just feel it in my heart.” While it wasn’t necessarily a lie, it wasn’t one-hundred percent true, either. She felt something in her heart—that tugging—but it wasn’t because she needed to help them. Hagrid sighed before motioning for her to follow along.
“I’ll let yeh, but only ‘cause this is what yeh’d serve fer gettin’ caught out of yer common room past curfew, anyway.”
Malfoy stomped his foot, “This is peasant work! I’m a student, not a peasant, I shouldn’t have to do this! If my father were to hear about this—”
“He’d tell yeh ter get over yerself and that this is how Hogwarts is; yeh did bad now yeh’ve got ter pay the price. ‘Snot yer choice what yer punishment is, yeh’ll do the work or yeh’ll get expelled. If that’s what yer father’d rather then yeh better get teh packin’!” Hagrid growled in frustration and the group went dead silent. Malfoy glared at Hagrid before dropping his eyes to his feet.
They walked closer to the edge of the forest as Hagrid explained what they were to do, “Listen carefully, ‘cause I don’ wan’ no one gettin’ hurt tonight.” He led them to a puddle of silvery liquid. It had the consistency of blood, but it looked more like melted metal. “Yeh see this? It's unicorn blood. Bin findin’ them all week, found a dead one on Wednesday. There’s a unicorn somewhere in this forest that’s been badly hurt by summat and we’re here to find it, might ‘ave to put it out of its misery.” Y/N visibly grimaced at the thought of ending a unicorn’s life. Just because it would end the poor creature’s suffering doesn’t make her feel any better about it, something about killing an already hurt unicorn just didn’t feel good.
“What—what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us before we find the unicorn?” Malfoy’s voice wavered and his lower lip quivered in fear.
“There ain’t nothin’ in this forest that’ll hurt yeh with me or Fang.” Hagrid replied, scratching behind Fang’s ear as the dog whimpered. “Right, then. We’re going ter follow the path that the unicorn’s blood leads ter hopefully find the beast, splitting up inter two groups will be the most effective.”
Malfoy immediately said, “I want Fang.”
“Jus’ ter warn yeh, he’s a bloody coward,” Hagrid grunted once again as he crouched down to get a closer look at the unicorn blood, “Draco, Neville, an’ Fang will go one way an’ we’ll go the other.”
Everyone nodded and Hagrid instructed that if anyone were to find an injured unicorn they were to send up green sparks, and red sparks if they were in trouble. The two groups went their separate ways, and Y/N felt a little bad that they were sending a group of cowards the other way without at least one brave person, but Malfoy asked for Fang and he got what he wanted, so there wasn’t much reason to feel bad for Malfoy. The person she truly was sorry for was Neville, who was being sent down a trail with Malfoy alone.
After a little ways down the path Harry interrupted the silence and asked, “Could a werewolf be responsible for the unicorns' injuries and deaths?”
“No, they’re not fast enough. ‘Snot easy ter catch up with a unicorn, let alone injure one. Never heard of it before this.” Hagrid said quietly, a worried look had engraved itself on his face, and the more blood they encountered the more concern was etched into his expression.
The sound of running water was getting nearer the farther they walked, ‘There must be a stream nearby.’ Y/N zoned out as she followed Hagrid, the Forbidden Forest wasn’t as scary as she thought it would be. It felt enchanting to her. The leaves illuminated in the dim moonlight, each one begging for a chance to shine under the moon. The melody of crunching leaves under her feet as they progressed through the forest, the snap of a twig here or there, the light breeze that pushed the branches of the towering trees in the same direction all creating a symphony of sounds that blessed her ears. It was hard for her to find the forest scary when there were so many small details that made it so beautiful, so many little and hard to notice things that make being there worthwhile.
Her serenity was interrupted all too soon when she was picked up as Hagrid yelled something, throwing her and the other two students behind a tree. She gasped as she landed on her back, her once calm breathing now being forced out of her abruptly. Her eyes darted around for Hagrid, her ears were ringing and her vision slightly blurred as she watched him pull an arrow out of his quiver and line it up into his crossbow.
As the ringing in her ears faded, she sat up and caught her breath just fast enough to hear the rustle of leaves and a quick glimpse at a pitch black figure slithering away in the leaves. “I knew it—there’s summat in these woods that shouldn’ be.” Hagrid muttered as his breath hitched.
“A werewolf?” Harry tried to offer up as a suggestion, but it made Y/N snort. That idea had already been shot down by Hagrid, besides, werewolves are hardly something that ‘shouldn’t be in these woods’. It’s common knowledge that werewolves are in the Forbidden Forest.
“No, that wasn’ no werewolf or a unicorn,” Hagrid grimaced, “Be careful, follow me now.” In the clearing just ahead of them something moved and it put the group on high alert, “Come out now, I’m armed!” Hagrid yelled.
Out from behind the trees and into the clearing walked a red haired and bearded centaur, Y/N had read up on them while taking a break from revising for her exams. Y/N wasn’t too shocked, she had seen some things in her dreams and her summer studies that had prepared her for something like this. Hermione and Harry, on the other hand, were shocked. Their jaws dropped.
“Oh, it’s jus’ yer, Ronan,” Hagrid sighed in relief, “How are yeh?” It seemed as if Hagrid knew the centaur and was friends with him. They both shook hands as Ronan replied.
“Good evening, Hagrid.” Ronan’s brows furrowed and his voice had a sorrowful tone to it, “Were you going to shoot me?”
“Can never be too careful, Ronan. There’s summat in here that isn’ supposed ter be.” Hagrid replied before introducing the students at his side, “This is Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Y/N HalleWell, by the way. They’re students at Hogwarts, an’ this is Ronan, he’s a centaur.”
“Uh, we noticed.” Hermione whispered.
“Good evening, you three. Students at Hogwarts, you say? Do you learn much there?” Ronan looks up at the night sky.
“Yeah,” Y/N said happily, it’s not everyday you meet a centaur that’s friendly with wizardkind, after all. They’re typically weary around wizards and witches due to the nasty history they have with poaching magical beasts.
Ronan said something about Mars, but Y/N wasn’t paying attention to what he said. In the trees there was rustling and she saw the black figure darting through them, their cloak billowing as they ran from tree to tree.
Snapping out of her distraction she heard another centaur repeat what she had been hearing in the background, “Mars is bright tonight.” She furrowed her brows. They kept repeating that, but what does it mean? She’d have to look it up later, right now she’s more focused on the moving in the trees by the mystery creature.
Hagrid grumbled, “So we’ve heard. Well, we’ll be off, do tell if yeh run inter anythin’ odd.” Hagrid led the group out of the clearing. After their run in with the centaurs, Y/N couldn’t think straight, let alone focus on their conversation. She was too busy analysing her surroundings, she was sure the black creature was what was killing the unicorns.
“Look, Hagrid, red sparks! The others are in trouble!” Hermione pointed to the red sparks in the sky.
“Stay here an’ wait till I get back!” yelled Hagrid in a panicked voice as he started off in the direction of the red sparks, “I’ll come back for yeh, I promise.”
Hermione trembled and her fear was evident in her voice, “You—you don’t think.. They’ve been, well, hurt do you?”
“Don’t worry, Hermione, Hagrid is going to find them and they’ll be alright.” Y/N reassured Hermione as she pulled her in for a hug. As it turns out, they were, in fact, not in trouble. It was Malfoy playing a sick prank on the terrified Neville. Hagrid came back with Malfoy and Neville in tow, steam practically coming from his ears.
“Hagrid, I think we should change groups. This is clearly not working in any of our favors.” Y/N gave a disgruntled look towards Malfoy, but her gaze softened as she turned to Neville.
Hagrid gave her a nod of approval, “Right then, Neville you come with me an’ Hermione. Y/N and Harry you go with Fang an’ this idiot.” Y/N snickered as Hagrid called Malfoy an idiot, and it seems it brought Harry glee to hear Hagrid insult him, too. Hagrid gave them a quick apology for sending them with Malfoy, and then off they went.
After another half hour in the forest wandering deeper into the maws of the unknown that lies within, the tugging reappeared in Y/N’s chest. It pulled her towards a thicker puddle of silvery unicorn blood. She motioned for Harry and Malfoy to follow her. She followed the tugging in her chest to the corpse of the injured unicorn, her heart dropping in despair at such a tragically beautiful sight. The once luscious mane of the beast now matted with silver blood and the shiny fur now dull, all life had been drained from this majestic creature, and the cloaked creature in the forest was to blame for it. Harry took a step towards the dead creature when a slithering sound made him stop in his tracks.
Out from the shadow and behind the trees, a cloaked figure crawled across the forest floor like a snake approaching its prey. Once it reached the unicorn, it lowered its hooded head towards the unicorn's injured body and started drinking its blood.
Malfoy let out a loud shriek and bolted along with Fang. The hooded creature snapped its head to where the noise came from, looking directly into Harry’s eyes. Something about the creature felt familiar to Y/N, maybe it was the facial structure…?
She let out a gasp of realization as it started to approach Harry. The young boy had let out a grunt of discomfort, his hand shot up to his scar on instinct. She moved instinctually. Her wand shot up to the sky and she let out red sparks before running towards Harry and the creature.
“FLIPENDO!” She screamed, causing it to fly back into a tree. She ran to Harry who was on his knees in pain. Just as she reached him, a centaur appeared from the trees. It wasn’t Ronan or the other centaur that appeared while Y/N was zoning out, and it looked as if Harry didn’t know who this was, either. Frantically looking around, she saw that the figure was gone.
Y/N set Harry right again and brought him to his feet. “Are you alright?” she asked him quietly. He gave her a small smile and nod, a small blush that was barely noticeable under the moonlight graced his cheeks. Y/N’s first instinct was to save him. She didn’t run away, no, she ran to him because she wanted to save him. This opened the floodgates for emotions that Harry had never felt before, but that was something to think about another time. Right now was for recovering from the burning pain that had seized the minute the creature disappeared from sight.
“What was that?” Harry asked, he didn’t know whether it was a question for Y/N or the centaur, but he asked loud enough for both of them to hear.
“You’re the Potter boy.” The centaur stated matter-of-factly, “This forest is not safe for you, the faster you get out of here the better.” He lowered his front legs as an indication for Harry to get on his back. “My name is Firenze.” he added as Harry clambered onto his back. Firenze looked at Y/N with a mix of emotions, the most prominent one being confusion, “The stars have not accounted for you, do tell who it is you are.”
“Uh, I’m Y/N HalleWell, a first-year at Hogwarts like Harry. Though, I didn’t almost die at the hands of, erm, a dark wizard, so I’m not famous.” She chuckled out awkwardly. He nodded, still confused. She understood his confusion, though. She wasn’t from this universe, after all. Of course the stars hadn’t accounted for her.
“I’ll head off to find Hagrid and the others, please look after Harry,” Y/N sighed out with a strained voice, reluctant to actually leave Harry, but she knew the less time she spent in the forest and around centaurs, the better.
And the girl was off. On her way to find Hagrid, she ran into Hermione. Literally. “Oh! Are you alright?” Hermione hurriedly asked, “And where’s Harry?”
Y/N grabbed the hand Hermione had offered and stood up, “He’s with a centaur, we ran into the unicorn, it was dead. A creature slithered up to it and started drinking its blood.” Y/N shuddered at the memory, “Malfoy screamed and the creature looked up, it started to approach Harry and I sent it flying back. Harry’s scar started to burn, and… I recognised the face under the hood.” Y/N whispered the last bit to Hermione with a look that said, ‘I will tell you when we get back to the castle’. Hermione nodded and they ran to find Harry with the others in tow.
When they find where Harry is, Hermione checks that he’s okay before he tells Hagrid where the unicorn is, and Hagrid rushes off to go find it. “This is where I leave you. You are safe now, Harry Potter.” Firenze said before running off into the forest.
At breakfast Harry told Y/N what he had told the two Gryffindors in their common room at night.
“Snape wants the stone for Voldemort. It was never about getting rich or him being immortal. No, Voldemort is waiting in the forest for him to get the Elixir of Life.” Harry whispered to her, checking that no one was listening to their conversation. They’d learned their lesson to discuss important matters loudly in public after the nasty reminder of what happened last time someone eavesdropped on them last night.
“You see, that’s odd to me, Harry. I noticed something last night, you see.” Y/N whispered back to him, “Last night I got a glimpse of the figure's face, and it looked oddly like Quirrell’s. Not that it couldn’t be Snape, I’m not too sure after these past few months, but it looked so alike to Quirrell, I was quite frightened.”
Harry’s nose scrunched at that and he looked deep in thought, as did the other two Gryffindors before nodding. “He must be using a spell or something to change how he looks. That must be why you’ve been thinking it was Quirrell this whole time!” Harry said that one a little too loudly, as some students gave him a funny look. He laughed it off awkwardly.
“Or it could be the other way around.” Said Hermione deep in thought.
Y/N just shook her head to clear it of the nonsense, “No matter who it is, if they’re trying to bring You-Know-Who back then it isn’t good. Also, you know what the centaurs kept repeating last night? ‘Mars is bright tonight’? I looked into it when I got back to my dorm. Mars is the Roman god of War. That has to mean something. A battle must be approaching.” Y/N said grimly.