'No! No! No! This can't be happening.'
'If someone is attacking the Unicorn the ones in most danger are the foals since they've come to expect me in the forest during the night.'
Loki's head rushed with thoughts as he rushed himself deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
He was moving in the direction of the Unicorn territory since that would be the area where any injured Unicorn would travel.
'Unicorns are fast and agile, especially in the forest terrain, so their attacker must be someone even faster.'
'Is it an animal that's working for you-know-who under cover?'
'Possible but not likely since no animals are known to hunt Unicorns because that would curse them if they drank their blood. Their natural instincts would be hard to override without an unforgivable spell, but that would force you-know-who to control them like puppets.'
'I can't imagine him doing that.'
'So the only other option is a human.'
'A human from the castle?'
'If it is, that means someone seriously needs Unicorn Blood to do something immediately, like increasing their lifespan? Because they wouldn't risk killing the Unicorn and getting cursed for any other reason.'
'It is likely to be a Beyonder too since they might be able to offset the curse of drinking the Unicorn Blood. But that would mean they have control over the domain of curses.'
'Control over the domain of Curses? That's Darkness, Wheel of Fortune and Abyss, there could be more but I can't remember right now.'
'Since the Black family has the Darkness pathway Blasphemy card I doubt it is anyone from the Darkness pathway. That leaves the Wheel of Fortune and Abyss.'
'Neither of which I want to even entertain fighting against at my current level.'
Something glimmering on the forest floor caught Loki's attention as his breathing hitched.
'Silver! It's Unicorn Blood.'
Loki rushed and began to follow the blood trail stepping over roots and jumping over or through short bushes wherever he could.
And finally, under the calm silence of the night, Loki finally heard a soft *Neigh*.
Stepping through a bush and out from behind a tree, Loki finally saw the scene that sent shivers up his spine.
The silhouette of a man sitting on the floor ghoulishly towering over the struggling Unicorn came into Loki's view.
Loki saw the large wound on the Unicorn's stomach and felt his own stomach tie into knots.
Pulling out his wand, Loki put into practice the most powerful spell he'd learnt while duelling Dominic.
"CONFRINGO MAXIMA!"
A blast of fire shot out from Loki's wand, attesting to his poor emotional control that led to wasting a ton of spirituality, but the resulting blast that came out of his wand was still powerful enough.
The blast engulfed the ghoulish man and sent him flying back, slamming him against a tree and knocking him unconscious.
Loki raised his wand and cast a Lumos Maxima Halflight to light up the surroundings and check for any more enemies, but when he found none he turned his attention back to the unconscious man.
As Loki stepped closer to the man, he became more and more cautious in his steps.
'He couldn't have been knocked out if he was a Beyonder so easily.'
But just as Loki was about to take a step closer the man's body stood up like a puppet on strings and before he could get a clear view of the face inside the body turned and rushed away into the trees behind him.
"What-"
Loki attempted to follow, but a soft and weak *neigh* stopped him in his tracks, and he had a stray but important thought, 'If he's of the Abyss pathway, I can't attack 'Him'.'
Loki looked at the poor Unicorn that was dying and became rooted on the spot.
He knelt beside the Unicorn and stroked it slowly but just as Loki was about to give up he felt something inside his dress.
"How could I forget about this!?" Loki immediately pulled out the small flask in his pocket and pulled out its stopper.
It was the first healing potion Loki had made after Snape challenged him to make a batch of them.
Pouring the contents of the flask over the wound, Loki then poured some of the liquid into the Unicorn's mouth, and in under a minute, Loki could finally see the Unicorn's wound healing at a visible speed.
*Neigh*
The Unicorn also felt itself getting better and neighed happily but just as Loki was getting happier he heard the bushes around him snap.
Loki pulled out his wand and looked at the moving bush with a wary look.
And before Loki could figure out what was behind a bush a dark spell shot at him under the cover of the night, through the leaves, which he barely ducked under to avoid.
*BANG*
The spell that had flown past him burrowed into the tree and blew its trunk into smithereens. The tree was soon falling.
Another spell came Loki's way but he barely jumped over the spell by walking on a tree. And as he stepped closer to the tree to cover his back, he felt something sharp poke his robes and lift him up.
The unicorn had pulled Loki up on its horn and threw him backwards for him to land on its back.
"Woaaahhh~!!!"
Before another spell could make its way the Unicorn dashed through the forest jumping over bushes and using every foothold it could find to propel itself further into the forest.
Loki looked behind and saw a malevolent black mass following them through the forest, moving through thick branches and tree trunks by blowing them all apart.
A chase ensued with the Unicorn using all of the forest's terrain to its advantage, trying to get ahead and lose the malevolent black mist as Loki stayed on its back, gripping the Unicorn's mane, trying his best not to fall off.
As the forest got thinner, the branches and trees that were protecting Loki and the Unicorn from the spells started to disappear, causing the Unicorn to have to constantly change directions to avoid being blown to smithereens by the black mass following them.
As they exited the forest, the Unicorn threw Loki off its back and shot back into the forest leaving Loki disoriented, and when he realised what had just happened he realised it was too late to chase after the unicorn.
The Unicorn had left as soon as it had arrived and the Black mass followed it deeper into the forest not even sparing a slight glance at Loki.
"No!!!" Loki shouted. But he maintained his cool and he instantly got to his feet and ran towards the castle.
Entering the castle, Loki ran to the closest area where he could find a professor, he stepped into the hall with the giant clock and then rushed towards the Hospital wing.
*KNOCK* *KNOCK*
Loki loudly thumped the door of the medical wing and soon the doors opened.
"Yes?" Madam Pomfrey asked looking at Loki who was frantically trying to tell her something but he just couldn't because his lungs were burning from running all the way here.
"The Forbidden Forest- Unicorn- Hunting!"
"Calm down! Calm down!" Madam Pomfrey said with a soft smile as she pulled Loki into a warm hug.
Tears rushed down Loki's eyes as he finally spoke calmly, "There is something hunting Unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid and the rest of the students went there in detention, it is dangerous!" Loki said.
"I understand." Madam Pomfrey said with a soft smile as she pulled out her wand and cast a patronus charm that took shape in the form of a ball of light and flew off with a letter she had hurriedly scribbled.
As soon as she was done, Madam Pomfrey rushed with Loki towards the forbidden forest, arriving at its edge, only to find Hagrid running holding Hermione who was profusely bleeding from her mouth with the rest of the kids running behind him, they didn't look any better and they smelt even worse.
It looked like they had all puked blood on each other.
As soon as Loki saw Hermione he felt his stomach drop a few levels as a terrible feeling overtook his mind.
'What happened to her!?'
'She didn't- No, no way 'Adam' would let that happen.'
Madam Pomfrey rushed towards the kids and began to cast various healing and diagnostic charms on them.
Snape came to the entrance of the forbidden forest not long after and once he heard something from Hagrid he began to walk towards the forest.
But all Loki remembered next was seeing Snape take a step towards the forest before he collapsed onto the floor and fell unconscious while spewing blood from his mouth like Hermione albeit to a lesser extent.
The rest of the night was a blur with Loki spending the night in the Hospital Wing with everyone else even though he didn't feel anything wrong with him.
"Will Hermione and Professor Snape be alright?" Loki asked Madam Pomfrey.
"Professor Snape will be right and fit as a fiddle in a little bit of time and I've already stopped the disease in Hermione's body from spreading but she needs a little rest" Madam Pomfrey said with a guilty look on her face.
Loki's eyes turned watery as he looked at Hermione but he held back.
A soft hand rested on Loki's head and ruffled his hair, "You can sleep now, I'm sure the Unicorn you helped save is alright. And eventually, everything will work itself out on its own even with Hermione."
Loki looked at Madam Pomfrey and felt for some reason that she wasn't lying so he moved to the closest bed and collapsed.
He didn't know anything that happened after that since he was knocked out like a light in just a few seconds.
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A/N : DaoistJBeef guessed Voldemort's Pathway a few hours ago and so I am uploading this extra chapter today. There'll be another one because you guys crossed a hundred power stones today! Thank you for reading!
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