The Forbidden Forest

A/N - I hope you enjoy long chapters. [2100 words :)]

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As the next day passed, Oz prepared himself for the detention which should lead him into the forbidden forest with Hagrid. Getting some supplies together, he fully packed up and was ready to head off towards filch's office.

During the day, news of the 200 point loss was spreading around Slytherin and initially a lot of Slytherins were mad at Harry, Daphne and Oz. However, Daphne explained that they headed out somewhere and weren't caught until Malfoy snitched on them. She then went on to explain how stupid the boy was for shooting everyone in the foot. That turned all the Slytherin's anger onto Draco who hid behind his two henchmen Crabbe and Goyle as everyone tried to reprimand him. Oz thought that even Draco knew at this point his decision was a stupid one.

As Oz headed to filchs office, all five converged with Draco being especially quiet. Harry and Daphne still seemed to be discussing some sort of prank to play on Draco and Hermione seemed like she wanted to just get everything over with.

Eventually Filch came out of his office with a signature angry look on his face. Taking the five down to Hagrid's hut. After a while they finally reached the hut, lanterns in hand as they greeted Hagrid who was tending to a crossbow near a fire.

"Tonight you'll be spending detention with Hagrid in the forbidden forest...".

Hearing this, besides Oz all the rest looked at filch in horror. Draco was the first to speak up.

"The Forbidden Forest?! Is that a joke?! We can't go in there! Students aren't allowed... and in there's werewolves and such...".

Filch looked at the boy with no empathy in his eyes as he gave them all to Hagrid and left. Hagrid then went into detail about what they were doing in the forest. Meanwhile, Oz was thinking about what he needed to do in this forest while he was there.

While thinking however, he noticed a little dragon on Hagrid's window wagging its tail happily. Oz saw Norberta who must have sensed Oz's presence and immediately gave her the signal to hide. Surprisingly to Oz, Norberta understood his command as she sadly drooped her head and hid under the window.

'Dragons seem to be far more intelligent than we give them credit for... She's only a baby but understood a simple command of mine... Unless Merlin's blood has some sort of commanding property to it'.

After this little scene the entire group of six people headed into the forbidden forest.

.

30 minutes into the detention Oz looked around at everyone in the group. Harry was presently walking off by himself, still nearby and in sight of Hagrid but could disappear at any second so he kept his eyes trained on him. Meanwhile, Daphne was pranking Hermione, scaring her by hiding behind trees which rapidly caused the girl to become pale with fright. As for Draco he was hiding behind Hagrid and Fang, flinching at every sound.

Oz was taking a rather peaceful walk himself. His eyes were able to detect any magical signatures after all so if a magical beast attacked him, he would see it coming. As a matter of fact, Oz was kind of hoping that he would be attacked as that would allow him more materials for the ritual.

Sadly for him, he noticed that even some of the small spiders crawling around on the ground were avoiding him for some reason. After thinking for a while all Oz could think of was that his aura that had a tinge of Dragon in it now was scaring certain beasts away. After all, dragons are a supreme magical beast and most beasts act on instinct so seeing Oz with the aura of a dragon probably scared many from acting on him. Realising this Oz felt a bit sad realising that he wouldn't be able to get any extra materials.

Eventually, Oz noticed that Harry was wondering over in a certain direction while Hagrid hadn't noticed. Seeing this Oz wondered if 'that' event was about to happen. Immediately as he entertained the thought he heard Harry let out a slight yell of pain.

Hearing this, Oz casted 'Augementum' on him self improving his speed. Charging over he reached Harry and the scene at hand. As he saw the scene before him he let out a cold smile.

'So there you are Quirrellmort... and a dead unicorn here as well? Perfect'.

Immediately Oz casted a 'flipendo' at the cloaked figure sending it off the unicorn corpse. When the cloaked figure picked itself up it unsheathed a wand as well. Seeing this Oz realised he was in for a little fight here.

Oz looked down at Harry to make sure he was alright but compared to what happened originally he had fainted this time around. This situation was good for Oz though as he could fight Quirrell with all his power, maybe even finishing the deed here if possible.

As Oz stared at Quirrellmort, the man casted a spell which to Oz looked like one of the unforgivable's. Specifically it was the killing curse 'Avada Kedavra'.

'Seriously doesn't this no nosed fucker know any other spells?'.

Seeing this Oz took advantage of his augmented speed and strength to side step the spell as he casted his own counter spell.

As the fight commenced, a flurry of spells flew from both angles. Oz's practice with high speed duelling in the RoR was coming in handy here as he was able to dodge the majority of spells sent at him with relative ease. Oz did feel a sense of danger however as Quirrellmort was constantly using the killing curse. Meanwhile Quirrellmort was being backed into a corner. Oz eventually saw an opening and disarmed the cloaked wizard with an 'Expelliarmus'.

As soon as the cloaked figure was disarmed, Harry began to wake up. Seeing this Oz thought now was a chance to finish this early before anything else could happen. Oz immediately sent an 'Incendio' at the cloaked figure and managed to catch its cloak. However, just before Oz was about to finish the job so Harry could seal the deal Quirrellmort casted a wandless 'Lumos Maxima' blinding Oz and Harry. As Oz opened his eyes he saw that Quirrellmort had retrieved his wand and was running away. Oz decided at this point not to chase as he would end up too far from the group, he also needed the unicorns corpse after all and if Hagrid came before hand he wouldnt be able to take any of it. Standing still and letting the cloaked Quirrellmort run away, he heard a voice enter his mind...

"I should have taken his warning about you seriously...".

hearing this Oz sighed as he thought:

'Oh well... I guess the best place to fight him will be down where the stone is. At least then he wont be able to escape especially with Harry involved and the stone in hand... but what he said... It's completely confirmed now that Salazar and him had some sort of dealings...'.

Looking over at the awoken Harry, Oz ran over.

"Harry! are you okay? That cloaked figure... it seemed to attack you somehow. I managed to fend it off and its gone now. Can you stand?".

As Harry stood up he looked at Oz in gratitude.

"I'm fine... thanks Oz for the assist there. That cloaked person managed to make my scar feel incredibly painful for some reason...".

As Harry was thinking on the subject his eyes widened as he came to a conclusion. Just as he was about to speak up, he closed his mouth. Seeing this Oz imagined that the boy had come up with a theory on something but didn't want to tell Oz as to not bother him with it. Of course, Oz already knew what the boy was thinking, that the man that had passed was Voldemort in some way.

As Harry was reeling in shock, Oz walked over to the dead unicorn on the ground. He felt a dilemma fill his head at this time.

'I can take the horn but should I also take the blood? Although the curse is present I'm not the one who slayed it... would the curse still activate if used in the ritual?'.

Thinking on this for a while Oz came to a decision as he casted 'diffindo' on the horn cutting it off.

'I already have troll blood... It may be a safer bet to leave it for now. A horn should have enough power and magical properties to give me some benefit...'.

Harry looked at Oz in confusion as he stored the horn away. The second Oz went to walk over to Harry however steps that sounded like a horses came bounding over.

"YOU THERE! WHO DID THIS?!".

Harry and Oz turned to see who was yelling at them, to see that it was a centaur. Looking at the centaur Oz felt slight greed fill his eyes, however he casted it aside as he realised it was neither the time nor place.

"YOU TWO SMALL ONES! DID YOU KILL THIS UNICORN?!"

The centaur seemed to be in quite the rage as Oz stared at it. As Oz approached the centaur slowly, its face changed from anger to fright.

"U-u-uh... I-I didn't realise there was a noble d-dragon in these parts... Y-you look exactly like a human though... Y-you must be a high r-ranking species!".

Oz looked at the now frightened centaur with a kind look in his eyes.

"Sorry centaur for the scare... We were not the ones who did this. There was a cloaked figure who was feeding on this unicorn before it ran off. I tried to stop it however the being got away".

The centaur calmed down as it noticed that Oz was not angry with it yelling at him.

"I see noble one... There have been rumours that a cloaked man has been feeding on unicorns in this forest as of late. Thank you for the information".

As the centaur calmed down, Hagrid and the three others caught up with Oz and Harry. Hagrid immediately gave a nod to the centaur thanking him for looking after the two. The centaur looked a bit wronged as he knew that he hadn't done anything, however Oz nodded towards the centaur allowing it to claim it had helped. After this Hagrid walked up to the Unicorn and started to diagnose it. Harry, Draco, Hermione and Daphne all looked at the dead Unicorn in wonder, pity and greed.

After a while Harry turned to Oz and whispered to him.

"Hey Oz... Why did that centaur refer to you as a 'noble one' and a dragon? Do you have any clue why?".

Oz shook his head at Harrys question.

"I'm honestly not too sure myself... Do me a solid and don't mention that I fought a cloaked figure, make Hagrid and the others think that the centaur did actually come to help".

Hearing this Harry nodded. Oz was his benefactor here after all so it'd be wrong of him not to follow such a simple request. Seeing that the boy complied with his request Oz smiled and turned to Hagrid.

"Is this one of the reasons you are patrolling the forest Hagrid".

Hearing Oz's question Hagrid nodded sternly.

"Yes... There's been many reported unicorn deaths in this region recently. I don't know what cruel bugger is doing this' but I swear I'll find out...".

Oz looked up to the dark night sky. He had managed to get his hands on a unicorn horn which was plenty of reason to see this little journey as a success. However after hearing the cloaked Quirrellmorts words he felt a sense of urgency again to rid the world of that old snake.

'I've let him live in that portrait far too long... He probably only 'taught' me to lower my guard so he could establish some portrait connections and run when I returned this year'.

Oz's mind was now dead set. When he returned to the castle he had to get rid of the snake before he got rid of Quirrell and retrieved the stone.

After seeing the Unicorns corpse, the group stayed in the forest for a while longer. Harry stuck with Oz as the two talked while Draco hid behind Hagrid. Daphne on the other hand was still spooking Hermione out and pranking her. Seeing this Oz felt for the poor bookworm, with her being on Daphne's radar.

Finally after a couple hours, the detention came to an end and all of them left the forbidden forest heading up to the castle and back to their dorms to sleep.