Chapter 60

"Green spell!? Green spell!? Was it a bright, acid green spell or a dark, dirty green spell?"

"Acid green and it practically burned the air each time he fired it. Damn near ruined my dragon-scale shield after the third one I blocked. I'm still pissed that that stupid spell ruined my chance of finding my father because it shattered the mirror where he was trapped with the others."

"Your father? James is dead… I buried his body myself alongside your mother's body," Mr. Black rasped as he dropped back into his chair and continued to stare at Harry in complete confusion. "And you're damn lucky you didn't let those green spells hit you. That was the Killing Curse that was being thrown around. There's no mistaking its acid green color and there are very few things that can block that spell."

"I really wish you people would stop insisting that some guy named James Potter was my father. Just because my middle name is James doesn't mean that I was named after some fictional character in your twisted up game. My aunt and uncle always told me my parents died in a car crash and there is nothing you can say to make me believe differently. The only man I will ever call father is Agil the Merchant and I refuse to believe that he'd dead. I have to keep believing that he's out there somewhere waiting for me to find him or there is no point in living."

"This isn't a game, Harry," Mr. Black quietly insisted.

Harry scoffed and pushed up to his feet, this time avoiding Hagrid's hand when the man attempted to push Harry back down in the chair. He then walked out of the house without looking back. He headed towards the forest until he recalled that he'd told Bane that he wouldn't be returning until sunset and changed his course to head towards the castle so he could stock up on food and kill a couple of hours by hunting the lower levels of the castle for the few Red Caps that he knew were still lurking in the deeper dungeons. He spent a good four hours down there before returning to the kitchen to collect his basket of food.

Supplies replenished, Harry snuck back out of the castle and headed for the forest where he met Firenze just inside the tree line (Bane had passed on Harry's earlier message) and unknowingly picked up a shadow in the form of a black dog. True to his earlier claims about his agenda for the day, the pale centaur took him up into the mountains hunting the strongest and least intelligent of the Troll species. These Trolls were solitary creatures that beat the snot out of anything that got in their way; rock, tree, or creature… it didn't matter; the Troll would smash each of them with equal fervor.

It was a journey that would take the rest of the night and a good portion of the next day once they'd picked up the trail of destruction that a Troll had left in its wake. Harry's luck took a sharp downward plunge at that point as the Troll he'd chosen to track led him right to a crotchety old Graphorn that had escaped from a magical creature reserve further north in the Highlands several years earlier and made its home in the mountains around Hogwarts.

The Troll was dead when Harry and Firenze finally caught up to it and the Graphorn in a right foul mood due to the injuries it had earned while killing the Troll. The Graphorn looked like a cross between a bull and a wild boar with four-toed feet, large humped back, a pig-like snout, short tusks, and a pair of six foot long twisted gold horns on either side of its head that grew out to the side for several inches before they curved forward where they ended in deadly needle sharp points.

This particular specimen stood close to fourteen feet at the withers, was twice as wide as Harry was tall, and had horns that extended out three feet from the point at which they curved forward.

There was no time to make a retreat as the beast let out an angry bellow and charged the moment it caught sight of Harry out of the corner of its eye. Firenze quickly backed out of sight of the raging beast because centaurs were exceptionally vulnerable to a Graphorn's sharp horns and tusks. Harry waited until the last second before he Sprinted five yards to the left in order to dodge the attack. The abrupt movement dislodged Hedwig from her usual perch and Harry let out a sharp whistle that sent her up into the trees to hide where she'd be safe from the rampaging Graphorn.

He then did his best to keep the menace focused on him to prevent it from noticing the centaur. Harry only had enough time to take out his shield, dirk, and steel cable from his Inventory and barely equipped his shield before he was forced to block the creature's next attack; his feet slipping several yards backwards as the Graphorn barreled into the shield and kept running. Taking advantage of the creature's proximity, Harry lashed out with his dirk and stabbed it in the eye; partially blinding the creature and pissing it off even more.

The thing reared up and batted at Harry's shield with both forefeet (its toes curled up like a fists); each blow sending a jolt of pain down Harry's left arm with the third blow snapping something in his arm as he was knocked to the ground. The Graphorn dropped down onto its feet once more just seconds later and began head butting Harry's shield next, its large horns digging gouges in the dirt on either side of the pint-sized wizard and each hit shoving him roughly across the ground.

Harry in the mean time frantically worked to tie the necessary knots he needed to make a lasso with the steel cable using only one hand while trying to ignore the rocks and bushes that were gouging his back and the way the pain in his left arm increased with each shove of the creature's head. Once he had his lasso ready, Harry looped it around one horn and pulled it snug before he rolled over and under one of the horns, scrambled onto his feet, dodged towards the Graphorn's blind side, and Sprinted around the creature so that the cable wrapped around its legs.

When the creature spun towards him the moment it caught sight of him once more, it played right into Harry's trap as it helped him pull the cable taut due to the way it was wrapped around the creature. As the Graphorn fought to stay on its feet, Harry moved in close and lashed out with his dirk a second time to blind it in the other eye before he ducked under its neck and then beneath its belly as he pulled hard enough on his cable to drop the monster onto its side before he tied off the trap around the beast's legs.

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