23: The Dark forest expedition and My awesome luck

(Beatris POV)

"somnum moliuntur" I herd the spell and saw Nathan fall.(I have hard this before. This is the same spell Nathan used on me !!!!! So is it a sleep inducing spell ?)

His breathing became stable and his body stopped trembling. I was scared. What was this display right now. But I didn't dare ask her

"What was that" ( Ron my friend, were you born an idiot)

"You guys got what you needed. now please leave me alone" We heard Ana's grim voice. She was not looking us in our eyes. Hermione still had Nathan,s head in her lap

(Thank God we have someone with a mind in our group. Nice work Hermione. But still what the hell was that. Does he have some kind of sickness or maybe he was poisoned. This is bad. No matter how much I hate him, This is bad)

"Ummmmm Ana, can we ..... be .... " I tried to say something but she stood up and put her hand on my shoulder. the next thing that appeared on her face was the worlds most fake smile ever seen. I don't know why but my heart felt heavy. I was badly shaken by the scene that had played here just a while a go.

"Thank you for your consideration Beatris but its not such a big deal. He is fine. Once he wakes up he'll be good as new. You don't need to concern yourself with such trivial matters. Every thing is just fine" She smiled

(LIAR)

"Are you really sure" Hermione asked still sitting near Nathan.

Ana turned towards her and said "absolutely sure. thanks for every thing Hermione. Let me repay you" She said and gestured for us to come closer. as we did she whispered "Do not open any present if it's sent to you today. Or else you'll be turned into a toad for six hours" Then she winked at us

"WHAT ???" the three of us shouted. The picture door opened and students started coming in. Swiftly Ana picked up Nathan and she was gone before anyone could see.

"Turned into toads, My brothers have gone bloody mad" Ron grabbed his head and sat on the floor

"Bloody Geniuses or bloody mad. It's either one of those" I said absentmindedly

"I think both" Hermione added. "Come on lets go to the library. We have a Nicholas to look for" She pushed the both of us and we walked away.

My mind was not on the topic of Nicholas but I was thinking something else.

(What was that)

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"Fifty points will be deducted from Gryffindor" McGonagall said

"Fifty" Ron shouted in dis belief.

"Each" and professor completed her sentence. Our jaws dropped to the ground.

"All four of you will serve detention with Hagrid" She said

"Wait a minute professor I think I heard you wrong. did you say all four of us" This time it was that tattle tale Malfoy

"No Mr.Malfoy you did indeed heard me correctly. Even if your intentions were pure you to were roaming around the castle after bed time" McGonagall cleared his delusions. We all could not help but smirk a bit.

Wondering how we got into this mess, well then lets rewind a bit. We found out who Nicholas Flamel was and what was under the trap door. We went to Hagrid to convince the guy that Snape was trying to steal the stone. But he would not listen to us. We persuaded him but nope. Well he did feel kind a happy to me at that time. A little while and we found out why. It just happened that he had a dragon,s egg in his hut and Hagrid always wanted a dragon. So, for the first time in my life I saw a hatching dragon. heck I had never even seen a chicken hatch before never mind a dragon. That was when we herd something outside the window. We all turned and saw Malfoy staring us like the toad he was. He ran away and told on us. This brings us to the current situation. Me, Hermione, Ron, the Malfoy mole and Hagrid all passing through the dark forest. Happy times.

We were moving through the dark forest and as the name implies, it was well .... dark. We would not have been able to see anything if not for the lanterns we had with us. Hagrid, abruptly came to a stop. Touching some liquid on the ground. It was silver. He showed it to us

"This is unicorn blood" He said"Our job is to find the wounded creature in this forest Ron, Hermione you are with me. Beatris Malfoy you take fang and look there but don't go too far okay now"

(Wait what. Not me and Malfoy)

"umm Hagrid" I tugged him

"Is there a problem Beatris ?"

"Can you send me and Hermione instead. I don't want to go with Malfoy. He always finds trouble for me."

"Hey watch your mouth Potter" Malfoy snapped at me.

"See what I mean" I took it to my advantage.

"Oh fine. You know what, the three of you go together and I will take Malfoy." Hagrid winked "Come now Draco. Let's go." Malfoy glared at us again and then he went away.

I mouthed thank you to Hagrid and then we separated. As soon as they were out of our sights the three of us howled in laughter

"Should have seen his face. Nice going Beatris" Ron tapped my shoulders

"I know right. Good work" Said Hermione. The three of us did a high five and we started our search.

My mind was not at the search, not even a bit. I was only thinking about the incident that occurred not to long a go with a certain white head.

"And then I did a twenty feet dive and ..... "Ron was going on about his heroics that he performed during his broom flight

"Hey Hermione. What do you think happened" I whispered.

"Where ?" She asked quietly

"To Nathan of course. where else ?"

"I don't know. I have read about many diseases but never one like this. I don't have even a slightest clue what happened."

"Man ..... Ana was sad. She was trying so hard to act normal."

"I felt that too. Did you saw his eyes"

I was perplexed. (Why is she asking me that). "No I did not. Why?"

"Oh okay never mind then"

"come on now you have to tell me. You cannot keep it a secret like that" I pouted a bit but her expression remained a bit grim

"His eyes were changing"

"Wha ?"

"Yes Beatris. His pupils were elongating. Right before he fell to sleep I saw his pupils. They were gone"

"What do you mean gone. You mean that his red pupils just disappeared and only the white of his eyes remained."

"No. The exact opposite actually. The white disappeared and his whole eyes became red" She said while thinking

"That is odd" I pondered

"Hey. Here I am telling you guys about my lives greatest achievements and you are not paying attention" Ron said making a slight bitter expression

( achievements my ass. It's nothing but pitiful boasting)

"Sorry sorry. Please continue"

And we walked for the next few minutes listening to Ron's useless bickering until finally Hermione said "Guys look. That there. Isn't that the body of the unicorn." Immediately the both of us turned our heads in her pointed direction and surely there it was. The body of a horse like creature. White as snow. It was still distances away.

"Lets go. If we report it it will end our detention." I said excitedly and we all ran towards it. As we neared the possibly dead creature, the scar on my forehead started burning. I did not pay much attention.The heat rose and it rose as we got nearer and nearer.

"Ugh" I placed a hand on my forehead.

"Is every thing alright" Hermione asked me

"Yeah fine. just my scar is burning."

"Has it happened before"

"No. Not that I remember"

"Guys" We heard the very shaky voice and looked towards Ron. "What is that" Ron was scared of something. We traced his fingers and that was when I saw it. A figure. A wave of passed through my body. What ever the creature was, It stood like a human being. Completely black and a hood on it's head. It came out swiftly from a bush crawling across the floor like some stalking beast. It reached for the dead unicorn.

No sooner did my eyes caught a glimpse of the creature, a burning sensation like never before invaded my forehead. The scar on my forehead felt like it was set on fire. The creature crouched down near the dead unicorn and started to drink the blood of the dead unicorn.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" Ron's already fictional courage, gave in and he ran away screameaming. That was loud enough to bring the creature's attention towards us. It rose. Silver, shining blood dripping from its mouth. The pain in my scar was nothing like I had ever felt before. It was excruciating to the point that it was starting to blind me. Already frozen due to fear, I tried to move but another wave of pain from my scar numbed my body. I fell backwards. With every second passing, The creature was getting near us and there was a twisted smile placced on its lips.

Out off nowhere, abruptly we heard something

*CRASH*

A thunder clap was heard in the forest near by. The lightning flashed above, in then sky and then it fell right in the middle of the forest causing a great deal of light and noise. The hooded figure was distracted for a moment.This moment was all that we needed. I felt a slight tug and saw up. Hermione. She supported me and the both of us, taking advantage of the situation ran at full speed. The lightning had subsided and we had lost our lanterns. Being in the dark forest and not having any kind of night vision abilities we pretty much didn't knew where we were going but still we were running for our very lives. Fang had also ran of to somewhere.

(All these wizards and witches and they can't invent night vision. What a waste of good resources. Wait, that is not necessary now. Focus Beatris)

As we got away fro the creature the pain in my forehead gradually declined and finally it was gone.

(The pain is gone. Was it related to that figure)

"That was a close call" Hermione was tired from all the running.

"You can say that again. Where is Ron" I asked looking for him

"He ran away the moment it appeared"

"Oh"

(Some friend you are turning out to be)

"What was that creature" I asked Hermione wondering

"I don't know I have never seen or heard of any thing like this before" She replied

"What ever it was ..... " The burning sensation returned worse than ever. I Seized my scar and fell on the forest floor"ughhh"

"Beatris are you okay" Hermione immediately became worried.

(Why is the pain returned. Why. Could it mean than)

"Her ... mione .... run" I was barely mumbling at this point.

"What. Why? What's wrong?" She was confused

(Try to understand) The pain was getting worse by the passing seconds.

"It,s coming back ... run" I was on the floor trembling in pain

"How do you .... " She understood something. Immediately she came closer and the next thing I knew was that she was lifting me up by supporting me with her shoulder. "Up we go. Lets run" She literally smiled at me

(WOW)

I did not utter a single word in response and accepted the help which was being given to me, graciously. But you know there is a thing known as fate and by experience I have come to a conclusion that who ever wrote my destiny had some kind of grudge against me. May be I stepped on it's tail or maybe I accidentally damaged its wings or something. Obviously it had wings or a tail. Scratch all that. As I was saying that I had the worst luck in the world. The proof was the hooded figure standing in front blocking our paths. We stopped in our tracks. We did not have anywhere to go.

"Hermione leave me and run" I said painfully

"In your dreams Potter. You will not get rid of me that easily"

She pushed me aside and came in front of me in order to protect me from the vile creature. It ran ... or floated .... or slithered or maybe crawled towards us. The pain in my scar was not showing any signs of declining. It was after me I could tell. As that thing approached us, I tried to push Hermione out of the way. If it was me it wanted, I was the one it would get. There wasn't any need for others to get hurt. I tried to push her but my body wouldn't move. Both of us stared as the figure slowly approached us

*RUSTLE*

A violent rustle in the near bush. The figure had some kind of light source. It turned the light towards the sound. A bush rattled and then ..... nothing. The slight gleam of hope that had appeared seemingly out of thin air or maybe in our case out of thick darkness vanished as swiftly as it had emerged. The creature turned towards us. I saw my life at an end ... once again. As the creature got even closer, once again out of nowhere a silhouette jumped at the creature.

(what the actual fuck is going on with my life)

The first thing that happened was the loss of light. We were left trembling in complete darkness. This new development had just saved our lives. Our eyes were a bit used to the dark . So even in a pitch black environment the both of us were able to make out some silhouettes. There were two, One of the hooded figure which now was being overpowered and the other was some kind of quadrupedal creature. looking at the queer fight only one thought entered my mind (It's fast). The hooded figure found it in it's best interests to run. And that was exactly what it did.

(What is up with this new development. But I think that we are saved)

Our breathing patterns were erratic. only one question was ringing in both our heads

(Now what ?)

The silhouette turned its attention back towards us. Slowly it turned to face us. It's body was not visible to us due to the dark. The only things visible were two orbs. SLITS hovering in mid air burning bright red. I looked in the creatures eyes and I for some reason I understood what it meant. I had seen it before. In the eyes of the Cerberus. The look of a predator when it is about to devour its prey. The bright orbs were gradually getting closer

(What as awesome luck. My whole life is FUCKED)