The Sinner and the Traitor

“You couldn’t have just kept your mouth shut and let us do what we had to do could you?” I glared at Malfoy in annoyance as Hagrid lead us to the Forbidden Forest. I felt a small pang of fear as I looked into the darkness. Malfoy was walking next to me muttering about how his father would hear about this. I told him to shut the hell up before hurrying along and catching up to Filtch and my friends. We had gotten caught out of bed at midnight by none other than Malfoy who just had to rat us out like the little kid he was. I felt the need to punch him in the face but I refrained because I knew I would get into even more trouble. What Malfoy wasn’t expecting was getting into trouble along with us so I felt smug at that thought.

I felt sure that Snape would have been the one he told but instead he informed McGonagall. Snape didn’t like me much because I was obviously in Gryffindor but he couldn’t deny my knack for potion making. He always grudgingly gave me top scores and I always made it worse by teasing him about it. What made things worse was that we shared Potions with the Slytherins and Malfoy and his lame goons sat behind me and Harry. They were always whispering insults to me but I was finally able to ignore it all within a few weeks and even said my own back. I even managed to trip Malfoy as he walked away with a spell and I secretly thanked my professors for teaching me that one. Silas had heard about “my misfortune” at being placed in Gryffindor and actually came to the school demanding I be switch over but Dumbledore denied the request causing Silas to flip. Needless to say the Slytherins had adopted the nickname of traitor for me.

Outside the Castle at night we were being led to Hagrid's hut by Mr. Filch and our punishment was to be in the Forest tonight. To do what I wasn’t sure. There was some mention of dead unicorns but I wasn’t really listening because I was too busy glaring at the blonde fool beside me.

“A pity they let the old punishments die. There was a time detention would find you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons. God, I miss the screaming.” I laughed as Draco gulped, and Hermione rushed by. I smirked at Draco as he glared. I waved at him and winked before mouthing at him that he was a sad little wimp. “You'll be serving detention with Hagrid tonight. He's got a little job to do inside the dark forest.”

I noticed Hagrid appearing with a crossbow but that wasn’t what stopped me in my tracks. He was actually sniffling.

“A sorry lot this is, Hagrid. Oh, good God, man, you're not still on about that bloody dragon, are you?”

Wait? What happened to Norbert?

Hagrid seemed to read my eyes on him because he looked at me sadly. “Norbert's gone. Dumbledore sent him off to Romania to live in a colony.”

“Well, that's good, isn't it? He'll be with his own kind.” I said like this should have been obvious. Hermione nodded in agreement but Harry looked at me like I betrayed his darkest secret. Was it bad that I stated what everyone was thinking?

“Yeah, but what if he don't like Romania?” Filch rolled eyes and Malfoy looked at Hagrid like he was a fool. “What if the other dragons are mean to him? He's only a baby, after all.”

“Oh, for Gods sake, pull yourself together, man. You're going into the forest, after all. Got to have your wits about you.”

“The forest? I thought that was a joke! We can't go in there. Students aren't allowed. And there are-.” He paused as a howl sounds out there. “Werewolves!”

“Awe, is poor Draco afraid of the dark.” I smiled ‘sweetly’ at him as he looked to me about to make a witty retort before he was cut off. He continued to sneer at me after that thought. I could only smile.

“There's more than werewolves in those trees, lad. You can be sure of that.” Filtch said with a dark laugh as Draco looks frightened. “Nighty-night.”

“Right. Let's go.” Hargid said starting to walk towards the trees. I stared after all of them but decided to follow anyways. I wasn’t afraid of the dark so much as what was in it. After the troll all of us faced it was hard NOT to be nervous.

In the forest we walk along a path to a tree where Hagrid stops and bends down dipping his fingers in a silver puddle. I felt my face scrunch up in disgust. Who just randomly sticks their fingers in mysterious puddles of liquid? People caught things that way if they weren’t careful. Malfoy was standing awfully close to me and I pushed him away when Hagrid wasn’t looking. Malfoy’s fist clenched up but he didn’t say a word. I didn’t want that little weasel near me but he kept coming back. Hagrid pulled out his fingers away and rubs them together. A silver trail smears with his fingers and I stopped myself from looking away.

“Hagrid, what's that?” Harry asked honestly curious. After the moonlight hit it and I got a better look I realized what it was.

“What we're here for. See that? That's unicorn's blood, that is. I found one dead a few weeks ago. Now, this one's been injured bad by something.So, it's our job to find the poor beast. Ron, Hermione, you'll come with me.”

“Wait. You want us to be stuck with this idiot?” I asked jabbingmy finger in Malfoy’s general direction. “Don’t we need an adult with us or something?”

Hagrid shook his head and held a small small my way. It was a pity smile. Ron muttered out a small and weak okay. Hagrid began to speak again.

And Harry, you'll go with Malfoy and Vanessa.”

Draco grimaced and Harry merely nods. Draco looked around before his blue eyes fell on the drooling dog. “Okay. Then I get Fang!”

“Fine. Just so you know, he's a bloody coward.” Fang whines at that and I rolled my eyes. Norbert was a better protector than these three, not that I wasn’t sure Harry would do whatever he could. It was Draco I knew would bolt at first chance. He was beyond selfish.

We eneded up going our separate ways even thought I fought as long as I could. Hagrid wouldn’t take me in the end and I was stuck with Malfoy. Harry and Draco were walking through the forest ahead of me with Fang leading. Draco was holding the lamp and I was absentmindedly kicking at the rocks and sticks I came across.

“You wait till my father hears about this. This is servant's stuff.” Malfoy growled and I had to roll my eyes.

“If I didn't know better, Draco, I'd say you were scared.” I said with a small humorless chuckle. He turned to me and I grinned. “Come on. Think of this as an adventure to the great unknown.”

“Scared, Beyer?!” He scoffed. He jumped as there was a howl behind us some yards away. “Did you hear that? Come on, Fang. Scared.”

We approached a flat ground with gnarled roots all over when Fang stopped and began to then growl. I grabbed onto Draco’s arm for a moment before realizing what I was doing. I quickly dropped his arm. He didn’t push me off though but rather seemed to step in front of me even though I could see he was terrified. Harry had done the same so I took this chance to grab at my wand and gripped it tightly.

“What is it, Fang?” Harry asked I felt my body start to shiver in fear. I may have made fun of Draco but I only did it because it made me feel better that I wasn’t the only one afraid.

Up ahead, a cloaked figure was crouched over a dead unicorn and it was drinking its blood. The figure raised its head and I watched as silver blood began dripping from its mouth.

“Oh my God!” I whispered in horror as the thing seemed to stand up and stared at us. Harry gasped and grabbed his scar like it was hurting.

Draco’s face held such fear that he became paler than he already was. That was the look of pure fear. He began to scream in terror before he ran away, with Fang in tow. “HELP!”

He just bloody left us! I watched him leave before I quickly turned around to face the monster once more. The figure slides over the unicorn and rises erect. It advanced more towards Harry, who backs up, but trips. I grabbed my wand and quickly pulled it out but no spells came to mind. I was too scared. How did you defeat something when you didn’t even know what it was? Harry crawled backwards and I quickly stood before him ready to just start randomly shooting out spells.

Suddenly, there was the sound of hoof beats and a figure leaped over me and lands near the cloaked figure. It was a silver centaur I realized as I could only continue to stare at it in shock. It reared up and the cloaked figure retreated, flying away. Or gliding, I wasn’t quite sure. I ended up having to sit down because I was in too much shock.

“Harry Potter, you must leave. You are known to many creatures here. The forest is not safe at this time. Especially for you.” The centaur turned to me with an almost understanding grim look. I could only look at him. He was handsome in a weird way to me but even as a witch it was a shock when some things happened. I looked away and put my face in my hands. I needed to catch my breath. I had a feeling I knew who was under the cloak. Unicorn blood held its own magic and even gave unnaturally long and immortal life.

Harry began to rise when he finally asked his question. “But what was that thing you saved me from?”

“A monstrous creature. It is a terrible crime to slay a unicorn. Drinking the blood of a unicorn will keep you alive even if you are an inch from death. But at a terrible price. You have slain something so pure that the moment the blood touches your lips, you will have a half-life. A cursed life.”

“But who would choose such a life?” Harry asked beyond confused.

“Can you think of no one?” I asked him looking up from my hands. His eyes widened and I knew he didn’t want to believe me.

“Do you mean to say...that that thing that killed the unicorn...that was drinking its blood...that was Voldemort?”

“At least it was part of him.” I muttered and looked where the thing ran off into. The darkness was think that I felt myself shutter. It was so unnatural for it to be THAT dark and it made it worse knowing WHAT was in it.

“Do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?” The centaur asked him offering his hand to me to help me up. He ended up yanking me a little too hard because I flew forward and had to stop myself from flying into his muscled human chest. It gave me a chance to study him though. How does one become half horse and half man?

“The Philosopher's Stone.” Harry said in shock. Suddenly, a dog barks behind us I knew it was Fang. I quickly let go of the centaurs hand and took a step back to see the rest of group looking at us.

“Harry! Vanessa! Are you alright?” Hermione asked as she looked us over and I could only nod silently.

Hagrid took a step towards us. “Hello there, Firenze. I see you've met our young Mr. Potter and Miss. Beyer. You all right there you two?” Harry nodded.

“Harry Potter, this is where I leave you. You're safe now. Good luck.” He nodded at the two of us before running off. I looked at after him and turned to Harry.

“Can I marry him?” He smiled at me and shook his head in disbelief. I looked away back to the dead unicorn and frowned. I walked towards it and knelt down to rub its neck. I felt sadness overwhelm me as I realized this beautiful creature was just slaughtered for his blood. The very thing that kept it alive. Its eyes stared out into the forest blankly I knew it felt such fear as it faced its death. I ran my fingers over its eyes closing the lids and I sighed in frustration. This should have never happened. I knew the others were staring at me as I continued to pet the dead animal. My wand was still in my hand and I healed the open gushing wound in its neck. It obviously didn’t bring it back to life but I felt better knowing it wasn’t bleeding even in death.

Eventually we made it back to the Gryffindor common room. Right after the attack we were all wide awake so we decided to just sit around the fire. Hermione and Ron were seated, but Harry was standing. I couldn’t help but pace before the fire. My mind was spinning because if Voldemort was back that meant Silas would be called forth for his services. If Voldemort was drinking unicorn blood thought that meant he wasn’t fully ‘healed’ so to say and that he still needed a way to become full again. That gave us some time then.

Harry had been explain to them what had happened as I paced when Hermione spoke up. “You mean, You-Know-Who's out there, right now, in the forest?”

“But he's weak. He's living off the unicorns.” I added as I stared off out the window blankly. We obviously didn’t remember when he was in full power but I remembered the Death Eaters afterwards. Even without him they were evil and vile. If he came back into the power they would only become worse.

“Don't you see? We had it wrong. Snape doesn't want the stone for himself, he wants the stone for Voldemort. With the Elixir of Life, Voldemort will be strong again. He'll He'll come back.” Harry said exasperated before he sat down in a huff.

“But if he comes back, you don't think he'll try to kill you, do you?” Ron asked turning even paler.

“I think if he'd had the chance, he might have tried to kill me tonight.” Harry whispered. I stopped pacing to look at him. He was scared and I knew how he felt.

“And to think, I've been worrying about my Potions final!” Ron gulped. I rolled my eyes. I had tried helping him countless times but he just wasn’t interested.

I suddenly smiled as I realized something. They all looked up at me baffled at my sudden mood change. “Hang on a minute. We're forgetting one thing. Who's the one wizard Voldemort always feared?” The boys shrug. “Dumbledore! As long as Dumbledore's around, you're safe. As long as Dumbledore's around, you can't be touched.”

Harry smiled slightly as I brought up the great point. If Dumbledore was alive Harry had nothing to worry about. And I was counting on him to be around for a long time.

If only I had really known how wrong I was.