When We Were Young

BONUS CHAPTER #2

March 13th, 1944

"Where's Harry?"

The inner circle shifted in discomfort, glancing at one another in urgence, wanting someone to say something to calm Tom down.

It was Corvus who break the tense silence. "We don't know-"

"You've been searching for two hours and you still don't know where Harry is?" Tom asked, his tone falsely calm, making his heated glares a bit. . . a lot more terrifying to look at.

The inner circle hung their heads, sweat beading at their foreheads in nervousness.

"Get out of my sight. If I see you again before you find Harry, I can guarantee you won't like the encounter."

Everyone nodded furiously, amusingly looking like bobble-heads, and scurried off to scour the castle once more for any sign of Harry.

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"Shh, it's okay," Harry whispered, inching forward.

He had been walking in the Forbidden Forest when he saw a clearing with a unicorn. The unicorn was quite skittish around him (which he blamed on the death-like feeling of his magic), so he had to be very obvious and slow with his movements.

For an hour, all Harry did was sit down and watch the unicorn, letting the unicorn know that he wasn't going to attack it. Then, he scooted into the clearing, letting the sun give the unicorn a more clear version of him. The unicorn would pace and snort whenever he got closer, but it didn't run away, which Harry took as a good sign.

Currently, Harry was in front of the unicorn, his hand outstretched and waiting patiently for the unicorn to come forward.

It was a pretty long waiting game, one that had Harry's arm shaking from fatigue, but it was worth it when the unicorn stepped forward and nudged its nose on his hand. Harry's breath speed up with excitement, but he forced himself to wait longer before softly petting the unicorn's long nose and side. He kept himself within the unicorn's line of sight, and grinned when the unicorn stayed with him, laughing when it head-butted him.

He couldn't believe he was actually petting a unicorn!  Unicorns were known for being skittish, and they only let those with pure hearts touch them. Harry didn't believe himself to be pure of heart, but he wasn't complaining! He was petting a flipping unicorn!!!

"HAAARRRYYYYYY!!!"

Harry yelped and the unicorn did too, rearing on its hind legs before galloping away from the loudness that pierced the clearing.

Harry turned around and saw Aurelius looking around the forest while calling his name, his eyebrows pinched together.

"What, Aurelius?!" Harry called, his tone snappish. How dare he scare away the unicorn! 

Aurelius' eyes finally spotted Harry, and he started laughing in a relieved sort of way. "Corvus! Over here! I found him!"

The next thing Harry knew, he was on top of Aurelius and Corvus' shoulders, and the two older boys were taking him to the Slytherin common room. Harry had to grab onto their hair to maintain his balance, his cheeks flushed at the amused looks they were getting.

"Guys, why am I on your shoulders? Put me down!"

Corvus and Aurelius ignored his protests and deposited him on his feet in front of Tom, who was sitting in his favorite armchair and brooding.

"Tom-"

Harry squeaked as Tom yanked him forward into a hug.

"Tom- wait, are you smelling me?"

Tom unburied his face from Harry's shoulder, frowning at the younger boy. "Why do you smell like you've been in the Forbidden Forest?"

Harry blinked up at Tom, speechless with all the bizarreness that happened in the past few minutes.

"Tom, what the fuck?!"