Lumos (ON HOLD)

The Hooded Figure

Charlie stormed past a pine, not caring if Malfoy was following her or not. She had been surprised that Hagrid hadn't seemed worried at all, what with Norbert leaving at midnight. The plan was that Ron would slip out of the Hospital wing using the Invisibility cloak and pick up Norbert's covered cage. From there, he would make his way up to the Astronomy tower and wait for his brother's friends to come and collect the dragon. She realised that it was a highly risky plan, but so long as Ron kept himself under the invisibility cloak, everything should be fine.

Malfoy panted as he caught up to her and they made their way deeper into the Forbidden Forest. Charlie shivered at the spookily dark pines surrounding her and Malfoy stepped a little closer to her side.

"You okay?" He asked in a gentle tone. Charlie turned and shrugged,

"I guess, just freaking myself out." She replied, frowning slightly as Draco put his arm around her shoulder. They made their way through the forest like that for a while, before a splash of silver gleamed from a log. Charlie pulled herself away from Draco's gentle hold. She bent down beside the fallen branch and pulled out her wand.

"Lumos," she murmured, the tip of her wand lighting up at her command. She rested her hand on the log, aiming her wand at the splashes of silver. Charlie swiped her fingers over the substance and her hand came away coated in a thin layer of metallic glitter. Draco's eyes widened and he spoke a spell, red sparks shooting out of his hawthorne wand, emitting a soft glow that illuminated the trees. Several moments later, Harry and Hermione crashed through branches and leaves, with the shine of Hagrid's lantern following behind. Hagrid nodded as he neared the fallen branch.

"Yup, tha's unicorn blood, a'right! Good job. Now we just gotta find the beast!" Hagrid's voice boomed, echoing off the thick pine trunks.

The group made their way carefully through the forest, following the trail of silver, when they came across two splotches of blood.

"Well, it looks as if we are going to have to split up again. Good luck, yer two." The five of them merged into the same pairings as before and moved down the opposite paths. Charlie and Draco walked side be side for a while before they heard a scream off to their left. They locked eyes and Charlie sprinted off in the direction of the noise when Draco shook his head. She heard heavy footsteps behind her and smiled victoriously. She saw a cowering figure on the ground near a cluster of tall, dark trees. Hermione turned her head as Charlie neared and raised a shaking hand to point at a shadow, whisking away between the pines.

A shiver ran through Charlie's body when she saw the still form draped over a tree root. She leapt to Harry's side and shook his shoulder gently. His face was screwed up as if in agony and Charlie gasped when she saw the gash on his forehead, beside his iconic lightning bolt scar. Her head shot up at the sound of Hagrid's voice.

"The nasty brute got away, he did. Tha' body over there is our victim of tonight's attack." Charlie turned her head to see where Hagrid was pointing and she spotted the pale silver and white body of the unicorn. Hagrid bent down and picked Harry off of the ground, who blinked open his eyes, looking somewhat dazed. Hagrid looked at Hermione in concern.

"Yer a'right, Hermi'ne?" She looked at him and nodded,

"I'm okay. We were walking through the forest and Hagrid was checking a cluster of trees, when a spell shot through the trees towards Harry, affecting him immediately. The figure did some type of Fear spell on me, and I went into a form that was close to comatose. That was about when the two of you showed up." She said, indicating towards Charlie and Draco, "Then Hagrid came back and chased after the attacker, before coming back and, well, here we are!" Hermione finished recounting her end of the story. Draco and Charlie looked at each other, matching expressions of horror.

"Who do you think it was?" Draco piped up, ignoring the withering stare Hermione was giving him.

"If we knew, we would have said." Hermione said. Charlie rolled her eyes as her two friends scowled at each other. 'Wait, since when has Malfoy been referred to as my friend?' Her eyes widened in a mixture of emotions, shock, horror and grudging realisation, that, yes, she thought of Malfoy as a friend. Charlie shrugged before breaking into a brisk walk to catch up with her companions.

***

As soon as Charlie woke the next morning, she turned and smiled at Hermione who returned it, putting down her quill and placing the lid back on the inkpot.

"Well? Shall we go check on the two of them before breakfast?" Hermione asked, referring to Ron and Harry, whom were situated in the hospital wing. Charlie nodded and hauled her exhausted self out of bed and tugged on her school robes.

They made their way down the twisting corridors, running down the hall towards the infirmary. Charlie shoved the doors open and, to both her and Hermione's shock, saw Draco standing at the foot of Harry's bed, talking to Ron and Harry both.
To the two girls further shock, the trio had matching expressions of happiness and they shared a look of amazement, before making their way over to the three boys. Draco grinned at Charlie, who returned his smile with a stunned version of her own.

"So what happened with..." Charlie trailed off, not sure if she should trust Draco with the secret of Norbert. Ron waved her off.

"Oh, it's okay, we told him!" Charlie turned her stare onto Harry, who shrugged and nodded.
Ron began to tell them of the past nights escapade, with the four listening avidly.

*AN: Wow! Thank you for the 380 reads! I know that I have promised long chapters, but I decided that I would be writing shorter ones and publishing more frequently, rather than long chapters and once a month!
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howling-wolf